Michelle Brake’s Post

The Marine Conservation Society State of our Beaches 2023 report is out today. For me, it has one over-riding message: laws and regulations work. Our amazing volunteers (over 14,000) have found fewer plastic cotton buds, fewer plastic straws and fewer single use plastic cutlery - and plastic bags on beaches have been going down for a few years now. What do all these have in common? The answer is regulation - either through bans or charges. What we need urgently now is: -Integrated Deposit Return Systems for all drinks containers, including glass, across the UK - we know from international experience that they work! -Policies that encourage reducing, reusing, repairing and recycling (leading to a circular economy) -Investment in sewage infrastructure to stop sewage overflows polluting our rivers and seas. With the help of our volunteers, at the Marine Conservation Society we will continue to collect data to help achieve these policy changes.

Our State of our Beaches 2023 report is out today! What is the state of our beaches? What litter did you find the most of? Are things getting better or worse? 🌊 Highlights from the report: - Half of all litter on UK beaches comes from public sources - either dumped, blown, or washed onto beaches - Drinks-related litter, including plastic bottles and cans, continues to plague UK shores, with an alarming 14% increase since last year. - On a positive note, disposable plastic cutlery, trays, and straws show a 5% decrease, indicating the effectiveness of recent bans. Our Beachwatch Manager, Lizzie Price shares: "Urgent and decisive action from UK governments is needed to accelerate our shift towards a circular economy, where we reuse, repair and recycle. The public needs greater access to refillable products and systems need to be implemented in which manufacturers are responsible for their waste," A huge thank you to over 14K of you who came out to help us clean up our coastline last year - we really couldn't do what we do without you 💙 Take a look at the report to find out more👇 https://lnkd.in/edFPk_WP

Can we please stop shaming cafes as they do their best to transition from single use cups Please consider this: - Koorak Kings Park is in a beautiful precinct that attracts tourist buses, walking and running groups and more. Often groups will arrive all at once putting pressure on the team behind the pass (ie the team making the coffee). For Stefan and team that means double trouble in terms of the issues that ALL cafes face.  It is difficult to manage BYO cups at volume because of the vast variation in the order: - Type eg. latte, milk, sugar, temperature, volume - Add the different BYO cups with different sizes (some of which don’t fit under the machine and have to be double handled) - BYO cups with different thermal properties - Dirty BYO cups and more - Then, match the cup to the correct person or potentially have to remake the coffee and or replace the cup. BYO cups that arrive in volume grind a café to a halt For Koorak that would happen several times a day at least In a café EVERY. SECOND. COUNTS. - The taking of the order - The pouring of the shot - Getting the milk to just the right temperature and pour -The latte art To enable that they need standard processes and product. After all, we expect our coffee to be perfect – or many will send it back to be made again or will go to another café next time. Koorak has selected BioPak for single use cups and Huskee, for reuse and of course you can dine in. Therefore, there are 2 eco options available: 1.       Dine in 2.       Huskee Please stop shaming Koorak Kings Park Huskee Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. If you would like to learn more about the challenges and solutions please DM me here. YOU COULD JOIN A WEBINAR Chad Buxton of Huskee and I would be pleased to host a conversation with a range of incredible cafes and venues that are working towards reuse – what works and what does not. Rebecca Prince-Ruiz OAM you are welcome to join this conversation. JOIN A TOUR Chad and I will also offer a tour of cafes that are in the transition where we can illustrate the multitude of challenges that these incredible folk are working hard to solve, and how they are gradually overcoming those challenges. Huge thanks to those who tune in to the challenge and then support their café, and innovators like us at Our Kinds, to enable the change that we need. You are a bunch of legends. Sending energy to all café and venue operators in the arena. It’s a tough transition – but man, it feels amazing when you get to the other side. #hereforthecafes #justbringitback #unsdgs #esg

In response to the post below featuring outrage about BYO cups. The transition to reuse is challenging for cafes and consumers and that is why at Our Kinds we are hands on trialling supply chain solutions that make offering and choosing reuse easier. There are 8 main problems to solve - it’s not just about cups. In WA and most other States single use cups cannot be recycled - standards are not updated, the cups can’t be sorted and there may be chemical risks. BYO cups are not easy for cafes to manage and create additional expense , not including consumers expecting discounts for reuse. A borrow model works with support (solving the other 7 issues) and can achieve 100% reuse. Our Kinds is raising funds at the moment to scale the work that we have been developing through trials over the past 2 1/2 years. If you would like to support the transition in a meaningful way then please DM me. We have campaigns for which we are seeking support in WA (regional), VIC (70 suburban venues) and QLD (CBD). All programs will be packaged for hyperlocal and global scale. There are answers. There are champions. There are trial sites. Its exciting. Get on board.

I enjoyed the story in Sunday’s paper, where Rebecca Prince-Ruiz OAM offers a thoughtful analysis. I was interviewed for this article and shared some of the significant challenges we face with commercial composting for these materials. One of the primary issues is that, even if the items are compostable, there’s no public infrastructure or dedicated composting bins in this area to handle them. This means that many of these “compostable” products never make it to a composting facility. ♻️ For cafes, there’s an added complexity. Hygiene concerns arise with customer-provided cups, as well as the requirement for cafes to wash them, making the shift to reusables more challenging than it seems at first glance. ☕️ Pro tip: Keep a clean, old jam jar with a tight lid in your car. When you're out and about and craving a coffee, you can use the jam jar to avoid disposable options, or enjoy your coffee in a cafe cup. 🍯 Our The University of Western Australia labs are working on solutions in developing the circular economy, if your interested in this area of research contact me! UWA Sage UWA Grand Challenges Kate Emery Anna Faber James O'Connor Maleesha Promodani #Sustainability #WasteReduction #CompostingChallenges #Reuse #CircularEconomy #WA #ZeroWaste #KeepCups #SingleUsePlastic #EcoFriendlyTips #FoodWaste #WasteIndustry

It was this headline in our local paper and not the coffee that raised my blood pressure yesterday, a story about a local cafe that is advocating single-use over reuse. The sign out the front says "KeepCup's seemed like a good answer to the landfill problem. But you might be surprised at how their carbon footprint stacks up". Whilst "sustainability experts" are consulted I would have thought that representatives from the waste industry should have also been interviewed Kate Emery and Seven West Media. Since WA banned single-use cups lined with plastic and plastic lids and now all single-use cups are compostable there is a lot of confusion about these items. Without any systems at scale to collect these cups and organics facilities willing to process them, the majority are destined for landfill. What makes this more surprising is that this cafe is in Kings Park which is managed by the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority which in turn is part of the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. As we transition away from single-use plastics its critical to look at the whole system and product lifecycle to prevent unintended consequences. Note: the article then does go onto say customers are able to purchase a reusable cups as part of the Huskee cup exchange scheme but I wonder how many people read any more than the headline as well as how many customers use this scheme? #ChoosetoRefuse #GlobalPlasticsTreaty #CircularEconomy

Our first clean up was a huge success 🙌. For Plastic Free July, our partners The Hidden Sea Wine 🍷 asked us if we wanted to get involved with their campaign to clean up as many spaces as possible. Of course we said YES! Together with an awesome group of volunteers 💙, we cleaned up litter along the Regents Canal in London 🇬🇧 - from Kings Cross to Primrose Hill. Racking up over 10,000 steps on a beautiful summer’s day 🌞 in the city, we also found a LOT of rubbish. As well as collecting a total of 490 pieces of recycling (including cans, glass, plastic and cardboard) and 3 bags of rubbish 😲, we also raised awareness of litter and plastic pollution. Many passers by commented on our efforts, thanked us, and some even asked to put their rubbish into our bin bags. We celebrated with a glass (or two) of The Hidden Sea Wine and chatted about what more we can do to tackle this issue - from signs and bins to attitude and behaviour shifts. Through plastic clean up partners around the world, The Hidden Sea is helping to prevent plastic from ever reaching the ocean. To date they’ve removed the equivalent of 26,992,616 plastic bottles 👏! Saving the sea together for Plastic Free July 🌊. #CleanUp #Litter #PlasticPollution #Plastic #PlasticCleanUp #LitterCleanUp #Reduce #Reuse #Recycle #OceanHealth #OceanConservation #London #TheHiddenSea #OceanPlastic #MarineLitter

Today's Page 1 Chicago Tribune story shares a grim statistic: 86% of Great Lakes litter is plastic. That’s according to a new report from the Alliance for the Great Lakes, which used data from more than 14,000 beach cleanups over 20 years to detail the amount of litter partially or fully composed of plastic entering the #GreatLakes annually. “Plastic is not disappearing — it’s just getting smaller and smaller,” Olivia Reda, author of the report and volunteer engagement manager at the alliance, tells Adriana Pérez, who reports that large plastic products left behind on beaches, such as single-use bags and takeout containers, eventually break down into particles smaller than 5 millimeters. This hot-button topic will be in the spotlight during #ChiWaterWeek 2024 as the alliance hosts a virtual discussion May 10 on “Plastic Pollution in Lake Michigan: New Findings & Innovative Solutions.” New, cost-effective strategies to block #PlasticPollution  — from washing machine microfilters to reuse and other sustainable solutions – are on the agenda as well as a Q&A session. The alliance’s Don Carr will moderate a panel featuring Professor Timothy Hoellein, Ph.D., Department of Biology, Loyola University Chicago;  Associate Professor Charlyn Partridge, Ph.D., GVSU Annis Water Resources Institute; and Senior Policy Advisor Andrea Densham of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Read the story: https://lnkd.in/d3c8Y4Vi Register for the Water Week discussion: https://lnkd.in/dVDcwpwS And check out all the #innovative Chicago Water Week events: https://lnkd.in/gYUJ-cjt #PlanetvsPlastics

What a success: Over 10 years, the number of plastic bags that washed up on UK beaches has fallen by 80%. In 2014, 5 plastic bags were found on the beaches every 100 metres. And now 10 years later, just 1 plastic bag was found every 100 meters. How did this success happen? Experts say that since people had to pay for plastic bags at shops, the waste on the UK beaches reduced. https://lnkd.in/dfKTvPY9

At Balgownie Estate, we’re always looking for ways to enhance our sustainability efforts and reduce our environmental impact. That’s why we’re proud to work with Bottle Cycler, a company that’s leading the way in glass recycling. Since we started using Bottle Cycler last year, we’ve made significant moves towards a more sustainable future. We’ve removed a total of 6,885 kgs of glass from our operations, ensuring that every bottle gets recycled into a new glass container—none are wasted, and none end up in landfill. 🌱 In numbers, our efforts have already resulted in: 4.2687 tons of CO2 saved 🌍 16,799.4 litres of water saved 💧 16.524 square metres of landfill space saved ♻️ These milestones are just the beginning, and we’re excited to continue using Bottle Cycler to push for a greener, more sustainable future. #BalgownieEstate #YarraValleyWinery #Sustainability #BottleCycler