The annual FOOD Week celebration was ahead of the curve when it comes to cutting out single use plastics and its co-president has welcomed the plastic bag ban that came into effect on Wednesday.
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The lightweight plastic bags are the first of many plastic items that will be banned in NSW this year.
However, the organisers of Orange FOOD Week didn't wait to create a more sustainable event and began to phase out single use plastics six years ago.
In 2018, the festival diverted 98 per cent of its waste from landfill.
FOOD Week co-president James Sweetapple said he was inspired to get rid of plastic bags following a trip to Italy in 2015 where he saw people, businesses and events successfully operating without them. Driven by a need to address climate change, he brought the idea to the committee.
"Six years ago when we tried to reduce single-use plastics we were faced with resistance," he said.
"However, we made a decision to focus on persistence to help lead the way for stallholders, customers and other festivals to reduce waste going to landfill and have essentially improved all our environmental footprints."
The festival has discouraged single-use plastics and provided educational resources and guides to help stallholders make the switch to alternatives, such as reusable bags.
"Every interaction a stallholder has with a customer is an opportunity to improve sustainable practices and it's really helped all of us prepare people ahead of the NSW single-use plastic bag ban," Mr Sweetapple said.
He said it took about three years for the stall holders at events such as the Night Markets to replace plastic with compostable items.
"We had probably 80 per cent compostable in year one, and 90 per cent compostable in year two, and 98 per cent compostable in year three," Mr Sweetapple said.
"The only plastic that comes in is out of the waterbottles [customers bring in] and we we advise as much as possible, 'please don't bring it in'."
He said several of the stall holders and other local businesses such as Trang's Kitchen and Mr Lim's also removed plastic products from their businesses.
Mr Sweetapple said the plastic ban needed to take place 10 to 15 years ago but said everything helps.
"We need to get on board and do whatever we can," he said.
He said he wants people to think about every little thing right down to whether to get a plastic lid for a coffee cup.
"Even this little bit is going to help."
Single-use plastic items and packaging make up 60 per cent of all litter in NSW according to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
The NSW Government passed the Plastic Reduction and Circular Economy Act 2021 in November and introduced the Plastics Action Plan last year.
The ban will prevent almost 2.7 billion items of plastic litter from entering the environment in NSW over the next 20 years.
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