By July, many of us have abandoned our well-intended New Years’ resolutions.
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Kiama mums Jasmine Bell and Sarah McGuinness have not only fulfilled personal goals of reducing their single-use plastic consumption, they have launched a local campaign to rally community members to do the same.
The girls are passionate about preventing waste from reaching the ocean.
The beach is their favourite playground, Jasmine’s a surfer, and their kids are now in the habit of picking up rubbish by the shore.
The Plastic Free Kiama champions feel incensed that the global community is not treating the issue with the seriousness it deserves.
They have set up a Facebook page, with 330 members as of Thursday, to address it on a local level.
“It all came about through our own New Years resolution,” Mrs McGuinness said.
“While on this journey, our eyes have become increasingly open to the absolutely catastrophic damage that our dependence on plastic has on our environment.
“With Kiama being such a beautiful waterside town with an already environmentally-conscious community, we felt that we could instigate our own change here.”
They have made a couple of basic lifestyle changes, and have encouraged others to do the same.
“Buying a reusable coffee cup will stop hundreds of disposable cups going into landfill each year and that's just one person,” she said.
“Imagine if everyone in Kiama or Australia made this simple change.”
They know they’re up against industry and commercial organisations that value the bottom line first, to the detriment of the environment.
“We know ourselves, it is easy to accept what is put in front of us,” Mrs McGuinness said.
“You go to the supermarket and put bananas in a plastic bag, then buy you toilet paper wrapped in plastic and go through the checkout and put it all in plastic bags.
“Then you go home and throw it all in the bin. It’s not something that even occurs to you to question, because you and everyone around you has always done it.
”Plastic Free July is so important for encouraging people who otherwise wouldn't think of it, to give up their dependence for a month.”
They have thrown their support behind a range of initiatives including, ‘Ban the Bag’.
“A plastic bag-free town would be a fantastic start for a wider plastic free community,” she said.
”Ask your local food providers if they can offer non-plastic alternatives for food packaging and discounts for reusable coffee cups.
“Refuse straws and disposable cutlery.
“Ask your kids’ school if they recycle or offer plastic awareness campaigns.
“Once the voice of the community is too loud to ignore, local retailers will take note.”
