Who we are
Plasticwise Taroona is a volunteer run community organisation dedicated to reducing the amount of plastic waste ending up in our oceans and landfills. We love inspiring and encouraging everyone in our community to join us, and be part of the solution to plastic pollution!
You may have already heard about our community bag project, where we worked with the Hill Street Grocer to go plastic bag free. Over the last year, our wonderful volunteers have made over 1100 reusable cloth bags out of recycled material to stock community bag libraries around Tasmania. This project alone has saved over 685,000 plastic bags from ending up in landfill and our oceans so far, connected over 200 like-minded people to each other and started conversations with industry and the business community about reducing waste.
Our project
The Plastic Free Lunchbox Project involves educational school workshops that are inspiring and empowering a generation of Tasmanian children to tackle plastic pollution at the source, and to reduce waste and litter in their playground, school community and beyond.
Our workshops inform children about the environmental harm caused by single use plastics, and guide them to focus on solutions that address plastic pollution at the source. Things like refusing plastic items where possible, dreaming up alternatives to plastic and reusing what we already have rather than buying new things.
At the workshops, children also make their own beeswax wrap to use for their sandwich or snacks at school. Beeswax wraps are a reusable and sustainable alternative to plastic cling wrap and zip lock bags, which are some of the most common and avoidable plastic items littering school grounds and nearby beaches across Tasmania (and everywhere else!).
Beeswax wraps can last for years, can be recoated in wax if they are damaged, and can be composted when they reach the end of their life.
We have already run workshops with over 300 local pre school and primary school students, who are now using their wraps in their lunches every day. We've also had great feedback from students, parents and teachers, and we want to spread the love as far as possible!
Since we launched this project we've had requests from almost 20 more schools to run our educational beeswax wrap making workshops with them, and we'd love you to support us to expand this program and reach more kids!
Why It Matters
Recent studies estimate that if we don't reduce the amount of plastic that we use and throw 'away', there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050 (by weight). This is equivalent to four garbage trucks of plastic entering the ocean every minute.
We believe that small decisions that we all make everyday can contribute to creating a healthier ocean. We also believe that children are the key to creating lasting change in our communities, and we want to continue to inspire and empower more and more of them to get involved!
How You Can Help
We need your support to expand this project and build our team to keep up with demand!
By contributing to our Plastic Free Lunchbox Project and spreading the word with your family, friends and work colleagues, you are helping us to inspire and empower more and more children to create change in their school communities, to tackle plastic pollution and to reduce waste and litter.
This is also a great opportunity for you to support a local community project that is making a meaningful contribution towards reducing plastic pollution in our oceans. We'd love you to join us and be part of this exciting movement!
Email us at [email protected] to be included on our mailing list and keep up to date with our future projects, and check out our Facebook page to join our growing community!