 – Cumberland City Council, NSW Australia
Waste avoidance is high on the agenda for most councils in Australia and worldwide. To help raise awareness in the community and provide alternatives to plastic bags, the Cumberland City Council drew on support from the local Women’s Creative Hub.
The Women’s Creative Hub is a collaborative and supportive space where women seeking asylum, refugees, and those from the wider community come together. It’s a place to connect socially through art and craft, while sharing and learning creative skills.
Wanting to avoid their used promotional banners from ending up in landfill, the Cumberland City Council devised a plan to turn the banners into reusable bags. These ‘banner bags’ were then made by the Women’s Creative Hub and have been distributed at council events and workshops.Â
This initiative helped to reduce waste from ending up in landfill and supported women from asylum-seeking and refugee backgrounds to gain financial help, as well as improve their skills.
 If you have a good news story, contact Plastic Free July
July 2021 is just a few months. Plastic Free organisers are looking to share some empowering stories. submit stories to share through the Plastic Free July website
Now is the time when thousands of community groups, councils and workplaces start to plan their Plastic Free July Challenge events – visiting the PFJ ‘get-involved’ page is the easy way to access ideas and resources for PFJ 2021. If you would like to find out more information, or share with your local council, go to Plastic Free July Council Membership page.
