Wasteful plastic has long been a thing of the past in The Wandering Teapot Café.

Our social enterprise team has worked hard to make sure we’re compliant with the latest legislation, with single-use plastic officially banned as of September 1, 2021.

It wasn’t too hard, though, as Social Enterprise Coordinator Rob Attenborough explained.

“Most of our customers have probably never seen a plastic straw or unnecessarily wasteful piece of packaging in our café,” Rob said.

“We’ve been in the habit of using paper straws for a long time now and we do what we can to reduce waste in other areas.”

This includes using reusable aluminium tins to store tea bags and loose leaf tea. Customers are also given disposable cutlery made of bamboo instead of single-use plastic.

“The only plastic items customers will consistently find in our café are the occasional plastic container for transporting takeaway meals,” Rob said.

“Even then, we prefer to offer cardboard options when possible.”

The Wandering Teapot trainee, Josh, with Social Enterprise Coordinator Rob Attenborough.

This commitment to reducing waste in our food service is just one of our environmentally-friendly initiatives.

These initiatives are in focus as the Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre has designated September as Green It Up month on its Year Of Fun calendar.

HBNC Operations Manager, Christian Berechree, said the community centre on Charles St was proudly solar powered, and there were plans to do the same at The Neighbourhood Hive and Urangan Community Wellness Centre.

“As an organisation, we’re proactive about reducing waste and making our community hubs more environmentally friendly,” Christian said.

“This ranges from solar panels on our roof, to signs reminding visitors to switch off lights and reduce their paper towel usage.”

Stay tuned for more Green It Up initiatives throughout the month and check out our Fun Calendar.