Central Coast Council, New South Wales, is waging a war on single use plastic bags and is looking to partner with local fruit and vegetable suppliers to provide customers with free reusable produce net bags.
This initiative follows on the success of the recent reusable coffee cup campaign where 27 cafes distributed 5300 cups, highlighting Council’s commitment to help reduce single use litter and ‘Keep the Coast Clean’.
Council Unit Manager Learning and Education, Beth Burgess is encouraging fruit and vegetable suppliers across the Coast that accept reusable produce bags to come on board with this initiative.
“Following the ban of single use plastic bags at the checkouts of major supermarkets, we thought the next logical action was to encourage our residents to also bring reusable bags for their fresh produce.
“To make it as easy as possible for our community to make the change, we have a limited amount of reusable produce net bags, to provide to select locally owned and run fruit and vegetable suppliers, who in turn will provide to their customers for free.”
Mayor, Jane Smith, said reducing and preventing litter as well as strengthening the community’s positive environmental behaviours were key objectives under the Green theme of the Community Strategic Plan.
“The growing issues of litter, waste minimisation and plastic pollution cannot be tackled by Council alone.
“It is all our responsibility to protect and care for our natural areas and this is one simple yet effective way our community can make a difference.”
The initiative forms part of Council’s commitment to the Don’t be a Tosser! campaign, which continues to remind residents and visitors to dispose of waste responsibly.
