What is Plastic-Free July?
"Plastic-Free July” is that time of the year when folks take a 31-day challenge to go Plastic-Free. Sound interesting? We think so. It’s a great opportunity to raise awareness to see how much plastic we actually bring into our home. What you start to realise is that plastic packaging goes beyond your local café or the fruit and veg aisle… it’s everywhere!
We have plastic in our shops and we are tirelessly trying to find better alternatives within our Harris Farm team and suppliers. In the meantime, we thought it would be helpful to share some tips on how to lessen your plastic load and make “Plastic-Free July” a little bit more palatable.
What are the 3 R’s?
Plastic-free living can be kicked off with the 3 R’s we all know and love: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Let’s re-visit them, shall we?
Reduce
The first ‘R’- “Reduce” is a great way to stop and check yourself before you make a purchase. Ask yourself—”Do I really need this?” or “Can I make it from scratch?” or “Can I bring my own?” For example, everyone has gotten used to B.Y.O shopping bags but what about bringing your own produce bags for the fruit and vege aisle? When we first started of very own #WarOnWaste back in 2017, we realised that it wasn’t simply a #WarOnWaste we were fighting but a #WaronConvenience! So for the month of July or really at any point in the year, we think it’s a great idea to try the challenge to reduce your plastic load and make more things from scratch!
Where it’s starts to get tricky, though, is when you get to food items like berries or other fruit that comes in a plastic punnet. We promise when we say, we have tried everything under the sun to find an alternative here. We will continue to do so until we get the balance right—but so far that plastic punnet is unfortunately the best way to get beautiful fresh fruit and veg safely and still intact to our shops! So in order to “Reduce” plastic here your best bet is homegrown or straight from the grower.
Reuse
But what if the plastic packaging is unavoidable? How do you tackle this dilemma? If you find yourself faced with an unavoidable plastic purchase, then the second ‘R’- “Reuse” is your next best port-of-call. We have heaps of fun coming up with alternative uses for Harris Farm packaging. Our cardboard boxes lend themselves to fun craft projects and our glass packaging is great for creating that Pinterest Board perfect pantry we all admire. But plastic packaging should also be thought of as reusable. Berry punnets make excellent food containers in lunchboxes and bread bags are a great way to pack sandwiches, wraps or snacks. Our favourite waste hack is to use the strawberry punnet to keep berries and such frozen in the freezer. This makes it easier to have on-hand delish frozen ingredients for your next smoothie.
Recycle
Lastly, if you’ve ever been confused about with is actually recyclable, don’t worry, you’re not alone. We teamed up with a recycling guru to come up with this helpful Harris Farm Recycling Guide [include link to Recycling Guide] to take the mystery out of what goes into each bin. At the end of the day, this last ‘R’- “Recycle” is important because no matter if the packaging is recyclable, if you don’t put it into the proper bin, then it’s going to either end up as litter or be a waste of a perfectly great resource. So, please do the right thing and choose the right bin.
The bottom line is, we know plastic isn’t great, and Plastic-Free living is hard. Packaging is one of our many bug bears and we fully appreciate its negative impact on our local and global environment. We’d like to do without it but in some cases it’s what’s needed to protect your beautiful fresh food and drinks and even make sure they last long enough to make their way into your fridge. We’d hate for your food to perish before you got to enjoy it. Food waste is another huge environmental problem and that’s topic for another day.
We have and always will be FOR THE GREATER GOODNESS and we will continue in our fight in the #WarOnWaste.
Join the movement today!
Shop plastic free here
If you’re interested in other Plastic-Free ideas, check out the plastic free tips here.
