Brisbane eco business owner shares plastic free tips

WANT to cut plastic out of your life? Here’s five tips to help you save money and the planet.

Biome founder Tracey Bailey shared her tips for living with less plastic in our lives. Photo: Jodie Richter

THERE are five days left in Plastic Free July and it’s not to late to join in.

Biome Eco Store founder Tracey Bailey, the founder of Brisbane eco-stores Biome, has shared five easy ways to banish plastic from the home — one for every day left in July.

“People make a small change and realise it’s not that painful and they realise it’s powerful,” she said.

Ms Bailey said plastic had a number of issues from pollution caused from its creation to the effect it had on the planet after humans were done with their straws and disposable cutlery.

She started Biome 14 years ago online and now has shops at Paddington, Balmoral, the CBD and Indooroopilly and has seen huge changes in attitudes to waste and the environment.

“Seeing seabirds with stomachfuls of plastic or turtles with straws stuck in their noses or people snorkelling through plastic swamps — that’s connected with people”.

Tracey Bailey at her first Biome shop at Latrobe Tce at Paddington.

She said the plastic bag ban and plastic straw phase outs at McDonald’s and Brisbane City Council showed when individuals changed, companies and governments would follow suit.

“The world’s got a bit sidetracked on the need for convenience and we’re finally realising that there’s a cost, and thinking: is that cost really worth it just to save some time and effort?”

Here are five small changes you can make from today, or any day, to reduce your reliance on plastic, help the environment and save money.

July 27

You’ve got the reusable coffee cup, water bottle and maybe even a straw. You just always forget them. Grab them right now. While you’re at it sneak a fork, knife and a spoon from the cutlery draw and a wash cloth from the linen cupboard. Put them all in a bag and put in your handbag or backpack. BOOM. Zero waste dining kit complete with napkin.

July 28

Make a promise to stop buying plastic cling wrap. Be creative and you will soon improvise to do without! Instead of reaching for throw away wrapping, use plates on top of bowls or bowls on top of plates, glass jars and containers, and reusable beeswax food wraps.

July 29

Make your own cleaning products! Instead of buying new spray cleaners in plastic bottles, soak lemon, lime or orange peel scraps in vinegar. In a few weeks you can strain the liquid in to an old spray bottle for an all-purpose spray.

July 30

Rediscover the trusty, good old bar of soap. Buy one and keep it on hand until you need it. No more shower gel or liquid soap in plastic bottles. Bar soap works just as well, is equally hygienic and costs less!

July 31

Switch to a bamboo toothbrush. Normal plastic toothbrushes cannot be recycled with household plastics, so they get sent to landfill. A bamboo toothbrush handle can be composted or buried in your garden when its time comes.