The Town of Bassendean, WA, has joined forces with Boomerang Alliance to create a “Plastic Free Bassendean”.
The move is part of Boomerang Alliance’s Communities Taking Control (CTC) program, which will work alongside the Council over a 12-month period and engage the business community to review supply chains and transition away from single-use plastics.
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The program aims to achieve wide-scale change through a reduction at the source instead of through community action and will engage local businesses, events, markets and organisations to switch from single-use plastic items to sustainable alternatives.
Boomerang Alliance received funding from the WA Waste Authority in July to bring the CTC program to WA after three pilot programs on the east coast have helped to reduce six single-use plastic items from food service and hospitality outlets in Noosa, Byron Bay and Wollongong.
Early program evaluations found a reduction of more than 30,000 single-use plastic items in one community in less than a year. Boomerang Alliance anticipates the final results will demonstrate significantly higher levels of reduction.
Town of Bassendean Mayor Renee McLennan said the council is firmly committed to going plastic free.
“We have a number of initiatives already underway across the Council area, but the opportunity to partner with Boomerang Alliance to create ‘Plastic-Free Bassendean’ will help us turn our vision into reality,” Cr McLennan said.
Boomerang Alliance CTC Program Manager Kellie Lindsay said the organisation is excited to confirm a partnership with the Town of Bassendean to create WA’s first plastic-free community.
“The CTC model has undergone rigorous testing through our recent pilot programs and we are confident that we can use our knowledge and well-established supplier networks to facilitate a major shift away from single-use plastics in the Bassendean community,” Ms Lindsay said.
Boomerang Alliance Deputy Director Jayne Paramour said the organisation hopes this will be the beginning of a state-wide program to change the plastic pollution landscape in Perth and Across WA.
“We look forward to engaging a local coordinator in coming weeks, to get the program into full swing and to seeing the whole of WA take up the challenge to go plastic free,” Ms Paramour said.