Linda Hall: Let's support new community group

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

Yesterday I received an email that made me so happy.

It was from a small group of people passionate about our environment and on a mission to make Hawke's Bay plastic-free.

Plastic Free Hawke's Bay, Te Matau a Māui launched at Chantal in Napier last Thursday.

Spokesperson for the group Jenny Keown said they were thrilled with the turnout at the meeting.

"It's clear that there is real momentum and a desire for change to a reusable culture here in Hawke's Bay, and it's pretty exciting that we will play a role."

She told me her family had been reducing waste for the past five months.

"With three children and two working parents you have to put some thought into it and be organised," Jenny said.

Jenny started out on Instagram with a page called "one lady fighting plastic".

"From that I learned that people wanted some guidance. The issue is so broad and media has played an excellent role by showing terrible images of just how bad the plastic problem is and people have seen the direct link to what we do with our waste.

"People get it - they want to do the right thing and we want to give them support and encouragement."

The group has an overall formal goal of reducing single-use waste by a certain date and have suggested 2030.

"This is to act as an umbrella goal for all the smaller gains we make as we progress."

There are easy steps we can all take to start our own journey. I haven't used a supermarket plastic bag for months now and every time I go to the supermarket there are more and more people following suit.

I don't use the excuse now of "oh I left them in the car or at home".

I did leave them in the car a couple of weeks ago but the lovely women at the checkout were happy for me to run out and get them.

As soon as I have emptied them I put them back in the boot. It soon becomes routine and it's just one little step but if we all did it imagine the difference it would make to our beautiful country.

I'm also making sure I recycle any plastic, paper, bottles, anything that is recyclable goes out on the kerb on recycling day.

There are many more things I could do and I am working my way toward them. Buying a reusable coffee cup is now ticked off my list.

One of the things I have really noticed is that our wheelie bin, which gets emptied once a fortnight, is only about half full. Good excuse to get into the garden and pull some weeds and trim the roses.

The group hopes to hold monthly workshops on subjects such as DIY Beeswax wraps, DIY cloth bags, DIY cleaning products and demystifying recycling to name a few.

I know I've written on this subject a lot but I believe the more people see it and read it the more chance we have of getting rid of plastic.

When you start thinking about all the plastic we use on a daily basis it's quite frightening.

There are many baby steps we can take and I actually think that's the key. Trying to change the way you do everything at once can be daunting and if it gets too hard that when we tend to give up.

I've started with the shopping bags and making sure absolutely nothing recyclable goes in the bin.

Mr Neat, who at first asked me "what crusade I was on now", has been doing his part — I think he got sick of me pulling things out of the rubbish bin and tut tutting at him.

I saw a very cool photo on Facebook of two young boys who had a pile of rubbish at their feet after cleaning up their neighbourhood, good on them.

Hopefully the younger generation will be better at looking after the planet than we have been.

I hope to go to the next meeting of Plastic Free Hawke's Bay and get some more ideas on how I can take another step.

Sometimes all you need is someone to show you how easy something can be. I salute you Plastic Free Hawke's Bay and hope you get loads of support form our community.

You can follow them on Facebook and @plasticfreehb on Instagram.
Watch this space for our next meeting.

Linda Hall is assistant editor of Hawke's Bay Today.
Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's.