The move towards a plastic-free Braidwood is as ambitious as it is laudable. Plastic, as we know, is virtually indestructable. First invented at the beginning of the 20th century, it didn't enter mass production and popular usage until the 1960s.
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It is a sobering thought that every piece of plastic ever made is still in existence, somewhere. A lot is recycled into other plastic-based materials, tonnes and tonnes of it languishes in landfills, and much of it is in the oceans. Marine mammals and birds are choking on it, fish are absorbing it and beaches are covered in it.
Plastic is convenient, but the end result of its widespread use is far from convenient: pollution, litter, toxicity. A town devoid of plastic waste is a desirable alternative, but is a plastic-free Braidwood really feasible?
Small towns are the ideal testing grounds for such movements. If it's possible to be plastic-free at a small scale, then the model can be transferred to larger and larger urban centres. The bigger problem than plastic, however, is behaviour. Entrenched patterns of behaviour are difficult to budge, and when that behaviour involves convenience, it become almost intractable.
Encouragingly, in Braidwood the 'Boomerang bag' concept has been adopted enthusiastically, plastic drink bottles and bottled water are making way for reusable bottles and reusable food wrappers are made and sold locally. However, taking the next step towards changing social behaviour is going to be challenging.
Perhaps it's time to take progress on a trip back to the future. There was a time when plastic was not ubiquitous in household use. Parents and grandparents would remember lining the kitchen bin with newspaper instead of a plastic bag, wrapping sandwiches in greaseproof paper and putting them in a paper bag, placing leftovers in the fridge in a ceramic bowl covered with a plate instead of covered with plastic film. A personal or household approach might be to take a challenge to find cheap, sustainable and reusable alternatives to the tsunami of plastic that moves in and out of our homes every week.
It is easy to lose heart when attempting broadscale social change, but for all those who are taking steps towards a plastic-free Braidwood, remember, less than a generation ago around 40% of Australians smoked, and were able to do so in restaurants, bars, shops and schools. Change happens slowly, but it does happen.
