Zero Waste Victoria is launching a campaign to empower a movement encouraging people to reduce reliance on plastic bags.
Our inaugural activation will be held at Queen Vic Market on in February 2023. But this is just the start as we have other locations around Melbourne in the pipeline. .
The idea is we’re targeting single-use produce bags for loose fruit and veg, to encourage people to ditch unnecessary plastic. So to switch out, or not use plastic produce bags, similar to the way we already reuse our shopping carry bags. Here’s a pic to give you a visual:
Our activations have 3 possible parts:
- We can offer your customers the opportunity to learn how to make their own reusable produce bags by hand from reclaimed materials, which also diverts textile waste from landfill.
- Shoppers in produce sections are offered a FREE reusable produce bag for fruit and veg – this is intended as a conversation starter. These smaller bags can be used in the same way as reusable shopping bags, but they are a lighter weight and designed for produce. We will also showcase reuse of cardboard fruit boxes in place of single-use bags, for shoppers where practical. (Please note sponsorship fee applies to have bags produced.)
- We will be setting up ‘Bag Trees’ in shopping centres around Melbourne where people are able to take or leave clean reusable shopping and produce bags for free. Working like street book libraries, with the local community contributing to ensure the trees are kept supplied with bags. The ‘Trees’ will be created from discarded coat racks (reclaimed materials).
People who have pledged to ditch plastic for Waste-free Fruit and Veg will be encouraged to post images on social media, tagging the food outlet and market complex with the hashtag #wastefreefruitandveg and #ditchplastic
If you are interested in hosting Zero Waste Victoria to encourage your community to join the movement for Waste-free Fruit and Veg: Join the ditch plastic pledge, please get in touch with your name and contact information – info@zerowastevictoria.org.au
Want to know more about our workshop? Here are the details
Take the Reuse instead : Low-waste Pledge
Would you like to make your own produce bags but not sure how? Here are the instructions