It’s meant to only be one day per year, but World Environment Day 2018 turned into a week long event across Australia (which is a very good thing in my opinion). The theme this year; beat plastic pollution.
Figures released by the Western Australian Government reveal about seven million lightweight plastic shopping bags are littered in our state every year.
These bags have the potential to kill our birds and marine life many times over given each bag can take up to 1000 years to break down.
Here’s a few initiatives I took part in this week in a bid to tackle plastic pollution — plus; food waste and urban biodiversity.
Sunday 3rd of June
Food Fighter film premiere tells the inspirational story of Ronni Kahn and her organisation OzHarvest.
OzHarvest work to divert excess quality food from going to landfill, instead feeding thousands of vulnerable people across the globe.
The film targets consumers, aimed at inspiring people to reduce the mountain of food wasted at home. Food waste costs the Australian economy more than $20 billion each year and results in over five million tonnes of good food ending up in landfill. See more here.
Monday 4th of June
On the eve of World Environment Day, Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci announced at an industry sustainability event that Woolworths will ban single use plastic bags from June 20th, instead offering customers reusable bags for 99c. Funds from the sale of the Woolworths Bag for Good™ will fund the Junior Landcare grants program, encouraging young Australians to play an active role in ensuring the sustainable future of their environment. This partnership with Woolworths has been a long time in the making and I look forward to sharing the positive outcomes.
Tuesday 5th June
World Environment Day, the 2018 campaign for Plastic Free July was launched in Freo. The challenge aims to raise awareness of the problems with single-use disposable plastic and encourages people to do something about it.
Thursday 7th June
Green Building day, Landcare worked with groups of corporate volunteers to deliver a seed-potting workshop. In addition to germinating 3000 seedlings, the workshop also brought attention to the importance of biodiversity in our cities, as highlighted recently by GBCA. Seedlings will be cared for over the next few months before being planted on the banks of the Swan River as part of an important restoration project during Landcare Week (September 4th 2018).
#BeatPlasticPollution #worldenvironmentday #fightfoodwaste #urbanbiodiversity #landcare
