By Margaret Maccoll
A campaign to make Noosa plastic-free was launched on Sunday at the Noosa Festival of Water by environment group, the Boomerang Alliance.
Spokesman Toby Hutcheon said the alliance, a consortium of 47 environmental groups nationwide, chose Noosa as the pilot area for Queensland to trial plastic-free living.
The pilot comes ahead of the Queensland Government bringing in proposed legislation to ban single-use plastic bags and introduce a refund scheme for plastic bottles.
“People are putting eight million tons of plastic in the ocean every year. If it goes on for the next 30 years, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish,” he said.
“Ninety-five per cent of plastic is used once and thrown away.
“In this country we use three million tons of plastic a year.
“We need to stop.”
Toby said a step-by-step approach could change the situation and he urged the council, businesses and schools to support the campaign.
He wants people to stop using plastic bags, plastic straws, water bottles, take away coffee cups and plastic cutlery. Items like take away containers can be made using wood-based products, he said.
“Plastic-free July is a great time to start,” he said.
A range of community organisations have already joined a Noosa Plastic-Free Alliance and will be co-ordinating the plan. These include: Noosa Community Biosphere Association, Boomerang Bags, Surfrider Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Environment Council, University of Sunshine Coast, ZEN Waste, Coastcare and Sunshine Coast Environment Educators’ Alliance.
