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Plastic-free Margaret River Farmer's Market

Project Evaluation Report C44

Diane Clemenceau August 2014

"This publication has been produced through a grant project funded by the Waste Authority.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Waste

Authority or Government of Western Australia, which may not be held responsible for the accuracy of

information provided, nor is it liable for any and all outcomes from the use of this information"

Executive summary HotRock received a Waste Authority grant in 2013 to help the Margaret River Farmer's Market transition to going plastic free. HotRock started with activities to build community awareness on the impact of plastics and to encourage people to think creatively about alternatives. These included community education workshops, bag sewing workshops, a sustainable bag design exposition, social media messaging, and promotion through other local groups’ newsletters. The transition to Plastic Free was launched on 16 November 2013 (during National Recycling Week) with a stall at the market to draw attention to the issue and provide ideas to help people make the change. There were also photo booths where people could have their photo taken with Plastic Free Barbie and Action Man. Music from local band ‘Choc Boys in the Sun’ attracted attention to the plastic-free message. Stallholders who were already plastic free received a ‘No Plastic Here’ sign for their stall. The increased focus on plastic has resulted in a petition to local government from those who strongly wanted to push for a plastic-free shire. The next steps in this campaign involved finding local environmentally friendly packaging suppliers. The stallholders were then invited to look at the plastic packaging alternatives available to them and were encouraged to trial them through the grant money provided by the Waste Authority. On the 5th of July, HotRock joined forces with Plastic Free July and other local environmental groups to launch the plastic carry-bag free Margaret River Farmer's Market. A wash up station was set up near the take-away coffee stand with volunteers encouraging people lining up for hot drinks to use a reusable mug. Volunteers were actively talking to the community about the plastic free movement locally and encouraging people to go plastic free for the month of July.

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People who pledged entered into a raffle draw and prizes aligned to the plastic free movement were given away at the end of the market day. There was another stall selling plastic alternatives for the consumers such as reusable produce bags, sandwich wraps, bowl covers, drink bottles, and more. HotRock was there with visual display showing the plastic-free market campaign story (including the financial support provided by the Waste Authority). Plastic alternative packaging available for stallholders was also showcased. Surfriders has a display that drew attention to the issue of plastic in the ocean. The change has been embraced by stallholders and the community. Stallholders are finding creative ways to using plastic alternatives and customers are either bringing their own bags to the market or purchasing a sustainable bag on site. To celebrate this change within our community, a small portion of the grant money will go towards buying cake for the stallholders as a thank you gesture, and rewarding customers who come to market with their own shopping bag with raffle prizes. HotRock will share the leanings from this project with the Australian Farmer’s Markets Association to inspire other markets to become part of the environmental solution.

About HotRock and the Plastic-free Margaret River Farmer's Market campaign

Education is the foundation of a cultural movement towards sustainable living. HotRock’s mission is to make sustainability education accessible, relevant and fun for secondary school students by providing schools with innovative and effective sustainability learning experiences that engage students’ “head, heart and hands”. HotRock sees students as the future leaders and provides the knowledge, skills and values to inspire them to drive a cleaner, healthier and sustainable planet. We have entered the critical decade in which all aspects of our society need to accelerate in their transition to sustainability. HotRock's work ensures that secondary schools can play a major role in driving this cultural shift. With its office newly based in Margaret River, HotRock wanted to expand its work into the community in helping the Margaret River Farmer's Market transition to becoming plastic free. The Margaret River Farmer's market is very popular for its wonderful local produce and delicious marvels. It seemed though that a lot of plastic was being used by stallholders in packaging the fresh products and providing plastic carry-bags to customers. The farmers are hard workers and are time poor therefore it felt like it was our community's responsibility to assist them in making the transition to alternative packaging. HotRock received a grant from the Waste Authority to help the Margaret River Farmer's market in their transition to becoming plastic-free.

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Project goals The aim for the project was to firstly stop the use of single-use plastics and then to move onto eliminating the use of plastics altogether. Therefore the project goals involved:

1. Understanding the current plastic usage by stallholders at the Margaret River Farmer's Market

2. Building community awareness of the need to become part of the environmental solution

3. Finding plastic packaging alternatives available locally for stallholders 4. Launching the plastic free transition at the farmer's market 5. Banning the use of plastic-carry bags at the farmer's market 6. Providing stallholders with plastic packaging alternatives (prioritizing the Plastic Free

July top four single-use plastics: straws, plastic bags, plastic bottles &coffee cup lids) 7. Encouraging the local community to pledge for Plastic-Free July 8. Celebrating the achievements with stallholders and the community 9. Writing a report about this project to encourage other farmers markets around

Australia to go plastic free by sharing a project report on the Australian Farmer's Market Association with steps to project implementation.

10. Sharing the progress of this project within the community throughout the campaign

Data collection

1/. Surveying Stallholders (in person) to understand the current plastic usage at the farmer's market.

Process involved: - Letting the stallholders know about the project idea via email - Collecting a list of all stallholders from the market manager - Circulating a questionnaire (see appendix) at the market to have all stallholders identify plastics being used, reason for its use and finding out if they know of plastic alternatives available to serve the purpose - Return following weekend to ensure all stallholders were surveyed. - Collated survey results

2/. Engaging other plastic free farmer's market around Australia (via email and phone

communication) to identify:

a). the criteria used for labeling their market "plastic free" b). the plastic alternatives used by stallholders

3/. Researching different plastic alternative packaging suppliers and the source of their

products (via the internet). Key factor to consider: a). the supplier's location: the closest to 'home' the better therefore, search for local suppliers

b). the source of the products: looking into the properties and ethics of the biodegradable products c). the price of the products, i.e. how do they compare to the cost of plastic and would they serve the purpose.

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4/. Campaign evaluation involved:

a). speaking to stallholders, market manager and customers to get their feedback on the transition to becoming plastic-free. b). watching customers bring their own bags to the market as well as seeing stallholders find innovative ways of packaging their products that doesn't involve plastic.

c). See Market Manager, Katrina Lombardo's email with project evaluation.

Project Outputs

Posters - several posters have been drawn up to inform the local community about the plastic-free Margaret River Famer's Market campaign and the workshops consequent to that such as: the bag sewing workshop and the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. All posters pointed to the same call to action: get involved, visit the HotRock website for more info and generic email address to contact us or for RSVPs. Consistency has been key across this collateral.

Feedback from community members:

"I saw the poster this morning and decided to come to this workshop this afternoon. The drawing of the bird caught my eye."

Email - minutes to meetings and ongoing communication with the farmer's market manager, other supporting organisation, businesses that supply alternatives to plastic and other plastic-free market managers in other states have been via email. This has been helpful to keep on top of all the action items and archiving messages. Social media - The plastic-free message, events and workshops have been shared on the HotRock Facebook page. The posters/invitations to workshops have been seen by thousands of people as it has been shared by multiple groups and included in other local organisation's newsletters to increase the outreach of the message. Supporting organisations included: Transition Margaret River, Margaret River Community Notice Board, Margaret River Farmer's Market, Plastic Free July, Gypsee Warriors, Tangaroa Blue, Surf Riders, Fair harvest. IGA stall - On Saturday 9th of November 2013 (one week prior to the launch of the plastic-free Margaret River Farmer's Market), the plastic free cape to cape group have gathered with a stall in front of the IGA as part of the IGA's 10th birthday. HotRock represented the Waste Authority and the Plastic-free Margaret River Farmer's market campaign. We had the plastic-free Barbie photo booth there. About a thousand people passing through were exposed to the message - mainly locals and some visitors from other areas. Margaret River Farmer's Market Stall - We launched the transition to plastic-free Margaret river farmer's market on the 16th November 2013 at the Margaret River Farmer's Market in front of the Old Church. The launch to the transition was officially announced by counselor Felicity Haynes, we had two photo booths of plastic-free Barbie and Action Man, a sustainable bag design expo from local participants who made sustainable/practical/recycle cloth bags, free chai give away for those who got involved in voting for their favourite

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sustainable bag design, a local band called "Choc Boys in the Sun" cranked their tunes over two sets, stallholders who do not use one-off plastics received a placard saying "no plastic here" to hang up at their stall. Subsequent to this there was also a petition for those who strongly want to push for a plastic-free shire. All in all, the plastic-free message went out loud and clear in the local community. Flyers - We've been handing out flyers to people in front of the IGA to invite them to our events. New connections were formed especially with plastic alternative providers and Earth carers. Newspaper advertising - We appeared in the newspaper a couple of times with the plastic-free message prior to events and the launch of a plastic-carry-bag-free Farmer's Market. Radio - HotRock was asked to feature on the radio to speak about the plastic free movement in Margaret River. This had a good outreach across the South West. Word of mouth - the most powerful communication tool. I have engaged several people I didn't personally know to share the plastic-free farmer's market message with them and the majority of them knew what was going on and heard about the workshops we were delivering. Meetings - calling out to volunteers and local artist such as Laura Bailey, Cynda Miles and Sam Purgavie to get involved in this campaign. It's been great working with people from within the local community for a shared goal. Launch event: The transition to plastic free Margaret River Farmer's Market campaign continued with banning plastic carry bags at the market and the launch of Plastic Free July at the markets on 5th of July 2014. Therefore the key focus was put on: customers bringing their own shopping bags, providing stallholders with alternative bags and implementing the Plastic Free July key plastic reduction principles - no straws, coffee cup lids, plastic bags and plastic bottles. A group of volunteers from the local community have come together to plan the event. On the day of the launch, a wash up station was set up near the take-away coffee stand with volunteers encouraging people lining up for hot drinks to use a reusable mug. The Lion's Club donated the mugs for the day.

There was also a stall for the community shopping at the market to pledge to support Plastic Free July. There were three volunteers (including one HotRock member) actively talking to the community about the plastic free movement locally and encouraging people to go plastic free for the month of July.

People who pledged entered into a raffle draw and prizes aligned to the plastic free movement were given away at the end of the market day.

There was another stall selling plastic alternatives for the consumers such as reusable produce bags, sandwich wraps, bowl covers, drink bottles, and more.

HotRock was there with visual display showing the plastic-free market campaign story (including the financial support provided by the Waste Authority). We also showcased the plastic alternative packaging available for stallholders.

Cape to Cape Plastic Free had a banner and display. Surfriders has a display that drew attention to the issue of plastic in the ocean.

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Project Outcomes

A number of volunteers have been involved in the implementation of this campaign such

as though participation in photo booth creation, holding stalls, wash up stations, photography, community engagement, workshops, and more.

Margaret River Farmer's Market have gone plastic-carry-bag free - i.e. the plastic bags have been banned (including the biodegradable plastic bags)

The Margaret River Farmer's Market has also received three new bins through this project to help improve their waste management. The bins are being used to split landfill, recycle and compost at the market. There was no compost bin prior to this campaign.

Stallholders are finding creative ways to avoid using plastic in their packaging - for example, the hydroponic lettuce vendor now wraps the lettuces with paper like a bunch of flowers rather than plastic. The farmers are using some paper bag products and also potting up their produce in terracotta pots so they can be emptied into the wonderful string bags and also their own shopping bags. It is an ongoing transition for stallholders and they show pride in coming up with innovative solutions. They are also "thrilled" to be using the alternative packaging provided through the support of this grant.

Customers of the farmer's market are now taking recycle bags, baskets and trolleys to do their shopping. Others use their arms to carry the goods.

The Margaret River Sign Company has donated a roster sign to this campaign.

The Margaret River Farmer's Market has experienced a spike in their sales of hessian bags. The organic cotton string bags provided through this grant have been very popular too. They are now available for sale at the market every week.

Volunteers continue to support this movement by holding more wash up stations on different occasions

Thousands of customers at the markets were exposed to the plastic free message through radio coverage, newspaper coverage, social media, signage and the events held at the market. Plastic Free July has also been of great support to push the plastic free movement through the month of July with hundreds of pledges from the community.

A Cape-to-Cape Plastic Free group has formed which is looking to push for a plastic free shire. Meetings are held on a regular basis.

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Project Statistics

The markets are now 100% plastic carry bag free (inc no compostable plastic bags).

At the start of the campaign, primary research was undertaken in observing customers walking out of the market (ie I spent 1.5 hours watching people walking out of the markets on a Saturday morning):

75% of customers were using plastic bags,

10% were using a combination of plastic and recycle bags

15% were either using recycle bags, trolleys, baskets or their hands to carry their purchased goods.

After the launch of plastic-free July and the ban of plastic bags, I spent 20 minutes observing customers walking out of the market on 2 different weekends. Post this campaign, 100% of customers are using recycle bags, trolleys, and baskets for their shopping at the market. Since there are no more plastic carry bags available, they bring their own or purchase the Margaret River Farmer's Market hessian bag or the cotton string bags that were purchased through the Waste Authority grant.

100% of stall holders were involved in this campaign as they were part of the research and also the plastic bags were banned which impacted all stallholders who were using them. A few stallholders were already plastic free (about 15 - 20%) therefore, this campaign reinforced their stance and made them feel good for already being part of the environmental solution. (

About 85% of the stallholders who were using plastic packaging, were open to the transition to going plastic free and were happy to enact alternatives if there were any available to serve their unique product proposition and provided the alternatives were within the same price range.

About 15% of the stallholders were opposed to the plastic free movement but with time accepted the change.

Please Note: the percentage of stallholders are estimate percentages as some stallholders have been rotating in the last year - some stallholders originally interviewed in the survey

have left and others have come in)

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Findings/Recommendations Power of community - receiving the support from volunteers and other supporting

organisations to help implement this campaign has been amazing Banning the plastic bag - the Margaret River Famer's Market manager strongly supported

this campaign and pushed this transition amongst the market committee, stallholders and consumers. As a result, plastic carry bags are now banned (including the biodegradable

ones as they don't fully break down and still damage our environment) Insurance policies - an interesting finding that came out from surveying stallholders on

their plastic usage is that their insurance policy is one of their main reasons for using plastic packaging therefore, making it difficult to go plastic free

Resistance to change - when we announced that the farmer's market was banning the

bag, some stallholders weren't happy at all and resisted the change as plastic is cheaper to

use and is more resistant to wet weather.

Time spent on project - I completely underestimated the volume of work involved in

running the campaign and therefore spent hundreds of hours working on this. Bringing change within a community involves a lot of work. As a result the deadline for this

campaign has had to be pushed out several times.

Lack of plastic alternative suppliers and product ethics: I have found a lack of local

suppliers for plastic alternative packaging. The freight to ship products to Margaret River is expensive and has a bad carbon footprint. Also the ethics of many of the products are

questionable, for example, some products are branded biodegradable but when put into practice it doesn't quite work and their impact is just as harmful to the environment. Must

read the fine print always. Also many paper bags are available for sale on the market yet

they're not made from recycle paper and are imported from overseas.

Availability and cost of plastic alternatives - a significant obstacle to implementing the

plastic free market campaign is that many alternatives aren't available yet. Therefore some

farmers want to use plastic alternatives but the right products for them don't exist yet.

Furthermore, many of the plastic alternative packaging products are significantly more expensive than the plastic packaging products. This sways farmers from using them as their

prices must remain competitive.

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Conclusion Plastic has found a way to anchor itself strongly within our communities over the last 40

years. It is cheap, easy and fabulous for consumerism, yet the consequences of using this

poison are priceless. Bringing change to communities such as reducing amounts of plastics used can be challenging as we seem to lack time and resources to implement the changes.

In supporting the Margaret River Farmer's Market in their transition to going plastic free, the key factors for implementing this change have involved: community, education,

communication and perseverance. The grant money has of course been primordial in

purchasing plastic alternatives for this campaign and implementing the project.

The project outcomes have been very rewarding - it's been great seeing the shift within our community to start thinking about the impact of our daily choices on our environment as well

as nurturing a feeling of pride for being involved in enacting the solution at hand. Seeing

shoppers at the farmer's market with their own recycle bags and stallholders with creative packaging ideas have been fabulous.

The campaign has been of great success rate in that customers now bring their own bags or purchase recycle bags at the markets. There hasn't been too many complaints. Stallholders still find it hard to by-pass plastic packaging and plastic bags on rainy days as the alternatives aren't as resilient to the wet conditions. This will remain a challenge for the time being until everyone has their own cotton/hessian bags.

Also, netting is still being used for fruits and some stallholders still use plastic packaging. The majority are embracing the movement though and finding creative ways to using alternatives available. There seems to be a sense a pride amongst stallholders using the alternatives.

Also, the plastic free enthusiasts are pushing for a plastic free shire, therefore the ripple effect of this campaign is growing. Other markets, such as the South Fremantle market, are expressing interest in the project report to apply this transition to their market too.

The criteria for a plastic -free market is interchangeable - markets all around Australia set their own rules. The Margaret River Farmer's Market is now plastic-carry-bag free and is

continuing the pursuit to plastic free packaging. Plastic packaging alternatives are not

always ethical in their environmental impact, available locally and affordable for farmers. Yet the trend is growing and as demand for these alternatives rise, the supply will follow.

Plastic is a thing of the past.

Collectively we have to continue saying "no" to this poison because if we don't do something about it, it's gonna do something about us. People talk about saving the

environment but really we need to start talking about saving the human specie because if we can't do something now about the poisons in our lives, about the poisons we chose to

use, then our days are numbered. It's a decision that we're making not just for ourselves,

but for our children, our grandchildren and their grand children.

Let's start with the easy things. Let's start by choosing not to use plastic.

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Appendices include

1. Campaign photos

2. Communication to stallholders

3. Evaluation

4. Marketing Collateral

5. Meeting minutes

6. Radio interview 7. Research and findings (including surveys to stallholders)

8. Social media

(available on request)

Newspaper Article 30 September 2013

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Stallholders with plastic bag free signage shoppers supporting the movement

Photo booths at the campaign launch Winners of the sustainable bag expo

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