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Plasticwise Taroona - Latest News
Sarah says "We're back!!"
A Christmas greeting and update from Sarah
I hope that you are all well and looking forward to a break and/or spending time with friends and family over summer!
Our last sewing bee for 2018 on Monday 10 December 2018, from 6:30pm at the Picnic Basket cafe. Join us to celebrate the huge year it has been, and help us make some bags, bunting and beeswax wraps, or just relax and have a cup of tea :)
Here are some of the highlights for 2018 (no wonder we've been so busy!):
- We raised almost $9,000 in our Plastic Free Lunchbox Project crowdfunding campaign, to run beeswax wrap workshops with school students - thanks again to all of our wonderful supporters!
- Just this year, our amazing team of beeswax wrap facilitators have run almost 50 workshops with schools around Hobart (and as far away as Swansea!), reaching over 1200 students so far - with bookings coming in already for next year!
- We also won a waste reduction grant from the Hobart City Council to run beeswax wrap workshops with Hobart schools (if you are a teacher or parent at a Hobart school and would like to book us in for a workshop next year please let me know and I can send through some more information).
- We made 30 metres of bunting that is now available for our community to borrow for parties and events, along with our set of reusable crockery, cutlery and glassware!
- We won a grant through LUSH cosmetics to fund Anthony Hill's plastic pollution education program at a number of schools and pay for his travel to Tassie - Anthony reached several thousand students around Hobart during his trip and is planning to return next year to go to schools that missed out. Contact Anthony on his webpage if you'd like more information or would like him to come to your school next year: http://www.plasticpollutionsolutions.com.au
- We continued to support Hill Street Grocer and other shops and organisations willing to lead the way and encourage our community to transition away from using plastic bags - I have now officially lost count, but we made well over 700 bags from recycled materials this year!!
- And finally, we made it to the finals in the Tasmanian Community Achievement Awards! What a wonderful recognition of our achievements.
A huge congratulations to everyone, all of our supporters and volunteers and all of the businesses we have been working with this year. I'm looking forward to celebrating and seeing some of you on Monday :)
Our sewing bees will be back on next year after a little break (probably in late February), so stay tuned
Update
Posted 1 September
Amazingly, we raised $8,700 through our crowdfunding project, which will go towards supporting and subsidising our reusable food wrap workshops with public schools in Tasmania. Thank you again to all of our wonderful supporters! We've been busy making and posting out hundreds and hundreds of beeswax wraps and bags over the last few weeks, but everything is almost under control now!
WE'VE DONE IT!!!
Posted 9 August 2018
- If you've been meaning to make a pledge, but just haven't had a chance - now is your moment of glory! Ready, set, go! https://startsomegood.com/plasticfreelunchbox
- Share the project with your friends, family and work colleagues and remind them that there are only a few more days to get involved and support us!
- Our project is also being supported by Future Super, Australia's first 100% fossil fuel free superannuation company. They're donating $125 to our project for everyone that makes the switch during our campaign. If you or someone you know has been looking for an ethical super fund, switching through our campaign will also help us reach our fundraising goal! It only takes 2 minutes, just make sure you join through this link, so we get the $$ from them: go.futrsupr.com/plasticwise
A Plastic free July
Posted 30 June 2018
No more balloons!
Plasticwise Taroona is one year old - Message from Sarah
Posted 31 May 2018
One year ago today, Plasticwise Taroona was born! We started with just a post on Facebook and an empty fabric donation box set up at the Picnic Basket cafe, and look how far we've come since then :)
I've been doing a bit of a stock take on everything we have achieved over the last 12 months, and thought I'd list a few things here just to remind us all how great we are! Every one of you has been involved in at least one of these projects to some extent, so a huge thank you for all of your support.
- So far, we have made over 1100 reusable cloth bags from recycled materials, involving at least 2000 hours of volunteer time. This project has also given a new life to over 200kgs of scrap fabric and linen, keeping a lot of this out of landfill.
- We have worked with a number of wonderful shops and supermarkets to go plastic bag free (yay Hill Street Grocer, Philadelphia Bakers and Mountain Creek Outdoors!), which has already saved over 685,000 plastic bags from ending up in landfill and our oceans so far. We have also set up a community bag library at Hydro Tasmania for their staff who shop in town.
- We have worked with four cafes to transition to reusable stainless steel straws (yay Ginger Brown Cafe, Honey Brown Cafe and Brooke Street Larder! Extra kudos for Hamlet Hobart who were already using paper straws :)). I am still collecting statistics on the number of plastic straws this project will save from landfill and our oceans, but rough estimates indicate it will be around 30,000 plastic straws per year (!!).
- We have spoken to hundreds of school students about reducing waste and the solutions to plastic pollution, including at Princes Street Primary, Lenah Valley Primary, Taroona Primary and Taroona High.
- Thanks to a grant from Huon Aquaculture and our wonderful volunteers, over 100 Taroona Primary students have made reusable beeswax wraps for their lunches, to replace plastic cling wrap and zip lock bags. Many students have been using them every day since (and we have more workshops to come)!
- We have picked up over 2000 pieces of litter and #plasticpollution from around our local school grounds, and recorded it all in the Tangaroa Blue Marine Debris database.
- We've run successful events, including yoga for the oceans and a screening of A Plastic Ocean to around 100 people, with Hill Street Grocer providing plastic free snacks!
- Thanks to the Resource Coop, we've set up a reusable collection of cups, plates and cutlery for members of our community to borrow for one-off events. In its short life, this little collection has already saved around 300 plastic disposable cups from ending up in landfill!
- We were also a semi-finalist in the Tasmanian Community Achievement awards in 2017 :)
What's happening?
Plasticwise Taroona
A small group of Taroona residents are creating Tasmania’s first bag library!
Bag libraries reduce the use of plastic bags by providing people with a free, fun, sustainable alternative – a bag made out of recycled materials, sewn by volunteers from the community.
This is just the beginning! Taroona is now part of a grassroots initiative gaining momentum around the world to reduce the use of plastic bags, one bag at a time.
Here is how you can be involved:
- Spread the word!
- Join the Plasticwise Taroona Facebook Page and keep up to date with the news
- Donate material and thread. Second-hand materials are suitable for making bags (we can make bags out of anything, I promise you - curtains, linen, pillow cases, t-shirts, trousers etc etc). There is a box at the Picnic Basket Cafe for donated materials.
- Help us make bags by coming along to a sewing bee at the Picnic Basket Cafe. No sewing skills required! We need people with a whole range of skills to cut, sew, pin, iron and screen print. This project is not just about bags, but about getting together as a community to do something positive, create and learn from each other.
Hill Street Grocer
Did you know that.... Hill Street Grocer currently gives away over 1.7 million plastic bags each year. Through our work facilitating and supporting Hill Street to go plastic bag free from 1 November 2017, we have stopped this enormous flow of plastic bags from ending up in landfill and our oceans - every year into the future! So thank you to EVERYONE who has helped us so far (cutting, sewing, ironing, printing, emailing, spreading the word, trawling social media with me etc etc) - we couldn't have achieved any of this without you.