Local government uptake
It’s one thing to support reducing plastic waste, but it’s another to put it into practice. Is there more your local government can do?
What you can do
Choose to ‘walk the talk’ and reduce plastic waste within the offices of your local government, council or municipality.
How you can do it
Start by taking a look at the single-use plastics that you use in your organisation. A good place to start is with a bin audit. This helps to understand the plastics currently being used, and to identify solutions.
Once you’ve established what you want to tackle, it can help to form a green team with like-minded people. Together, discuss what things you can do to ensure you’re not only ‘talking the talk’, but also ‘walking the talk’ when it comes to using alternatives to single-use plastics.
Elected members can be really valuable to talk to, especially since there is so much concern about about plastic waste in the community. Share with them the solutions to the issues of plastic pollution, and encourage them to take part in Plastic Free July.
Bringing local government staff and elected members together with a plastic free lunch is a great platform for discussing ideas and solutions. The Plastic Free July at work cards shares more ideas.
Taking the next steps
To keep the momentum going, review local government-run events and consider whether you’re doing all you can to reduce single-use plastics. We have some great solutions for running plastic free events if you need some inspiration.
Another thing to consider is reviewing your procurement policies. This way, you can join with thousands of local governments that are working to avoid plastic from coming into the community.
Once you’ve considered the organisation’s internal plastic consumption, it’ll be easier to begin to influence the wider community.
The Impact
- local governments that practice what they preach can have a much greater impact on the wider community.
- Modelling sustainable behaviours is a great way to encourage change within others.
- local government events are often effective in engaging the community. By reducing the single-use plastic used at these events, you can have an impact both on the environment, and the habits of the people attending.
