Many of the throw away habits we have gotten ourselves into have taken decades to evolve (our grandparents didn’t buy take away coffee or water in a plastic bottle!) and our reliance on them took time to grow from zero to seriously addicted. Reverting back to habits that make the most of every product that comes into our possession is Mullum Cares preferred method for slowing our throughput of stuff. Forget nano-technology, think nana-technology! If you want a more sustainable way of doing something ask yourself what your nana (or great nana for some!) would have done and chances are it’s more sustainable!
But reverting back to the days when you just stuck your head under someone’s garden tap if you were out and about and thirsty or taking your saucepan down to the Chinese take away to have filled with dinner (our Nana’s really did this!) often leads to barriers that involve regulators so community behaviour change isn’t always a complete or viable solution. Some community sentiment is also a barrier to going back to previous ways of being; an example is the wide spread preference for filtered water for drinking that presents a major barrier to shifting health conscious consumer behaviour away from buying water in disposable plastic bottles.
So when Mullum Cares identifies a problem waste worth investigating it looks to invite as many stakeholders as possible to contribute to the design of a solution. Last years project to return a permanent filtered drinking and water bottle refill asset to our town of Mullumbimby was successful because the community rallied to pay for it, including the business community, and the council agreed to install and maintain it. We believe collaboration is the key to accelerating the changes we want to see in our region and beyond.
#collaborate2accelerate
Currently we are working with the Byron Spirit Festival on a number of initiatives including helping them achieve a Plastic Water Bottle Free Festival by co sponsoring the event alongside Green Music Australia (GMA). Generally festival organisers feel obliged to supply bottled water to meet obligations to artists & staff but GMA are on a mission to stop this practice and together they with Mullum Cares are supplying some reusable water bottles as back ups for artists & staff who forget to #BYOBottle.
Patrons will be well supported to kick their plastic water bottle habit with Mullum Cares water bottles on sale and the mega awesome We Refill stations (that supported Renew Fest and the Global Village at Splendour in 2016) on site. Unlimited refill passes for the three day festival can be purchased for $15 or single refills for $2. Great value for still or sparkling filtered, alkaline water:)
#byobottle #byob #werefill #bethedemand #noexcuseforsingleuse
We’re not supposed to tell you yet about the ambitious plan to phase out all single use waste at the Spirit Fest…. Secret code name Grub & Scrub! More exciting details to come….