By Abbey Cannan
With February still topping the temperature charts it’s the perfect time for a cold delicious gelato or ice cream, but this simple pleasure may be creating an environmental impact on our treasured beaches.
Plastic Free Noosa coordinator Chad Buxton said he often picks up plastic spoons and plastic lined cups in areas around ice cream stores.
“Thousands of these go out daily and many end up on our beaches or footpaths, waiting to be washed into our oceans. They are single-use but last virtually forever. There are other options,” Mr Buxton said.
Plastic Free Noosa has worked with over 100 food retail outlets over the past year to help them find alternatives to single-use plastic.
“Each business that switches can save many, many thousands of plastic items a year,” Mr Buxton said.
“There are many wonderful cafes and restaurants in Noosa really leading the way here, we’d like to see some more ice-cream shops making that switch as well.”
Mr Buxton said ice-cream vendors like Ice-Cream Curls made the switch to plant-based cups and wooden taster spoons successfully. Another plastic-free option for businesses is bees-wax coated wood spoons.
“We want to ask our wonderful Noosa community to get out there and encourage their favourite ice cream or gelato establishment to ditch the single-use plastic… It may just be the turtle or seabird you next see that you are saving. And of course, we think choosing your ice-cream in an edible cone is the simplest way,” Mr Buxton said.
Any food retail business can join up at www.plasticfreenoosa.org.
