With a little help from the community and the efforts of a few families Sunshine Beach State School rose to the challenge to be more sustainable and plastic free when it held its recent International Food Fair and vow to do even better next year.
In the past, selected vendors arrived with their food vans to set up shop, usually with single use plastic utensils but last year, a couple of families were appalled at the amount of rubbish, especially the amount of plastic that unfortunately did not always end up in the bin. So jus weeks before the fair, parents Caroline Kohl and Sarita decided ‘we can do this: let’s create a fair that works towards being plastic free, sustainable and educational’
Caroline’s daughter Amelie, one of school’s environmental leaders, encouraged all children prior to the Fair to bring their own water bottles (as there were no plastic bottles sold) and ask to their parents to bring keep cups for coffee along with crockery and cutlery. Plastic Free Noosa provided invaluable tips to the formidable team. Luckily, a few vendors had already communicated with the organisation, whilst others served their food and drinks in paper plates and BioPak products.
With help from Noosa Council free bin covers were provided at bin stations where the rubbish was divided into recycled, landfill and compostable rubbish and volunteers manned these the bin stations so no unwanted rubbish ended up in the compost bins. There was even a washing up station where volunteers did the dishes.
The morning after the Fair a team of parents and children filled a whole bathtub from the compost bins onto the compost in the school grounds to the delight of permaculture garden co-ordinator Di Seels.
‘I was so amazed of how much compostable rubbish we created but compared to the land fill rubbish it wasn’t enough,” Amelie said. “I hope next fair it will be the other way around. It was fantastic to have the support from all the stallholders and volunteers on the day. Even my teacher helped parents man the bins.”
