We Discovered Something Incredible...The Impact of Your Collective Actions in Just One Year

April 20, 2017 Biome

Take the power of one, multiply it by thousands and it equals millions

You use your KeepCup, reusable water bottle and say no to plastic shopping bags every day, but sometimes you lose faith that your individual actions will make a difference. So we decided to do some math. We looked at the reusable items that Biome's customers purchased in the last 12 months and discovered something incredible.

In just one year, by purchasing and using reusable alternatives the Biome community saved the waste of an incredible 6.7 million single use plastic items* from being produced and then discarded. That's:

2,352,900 disposable coffee cups

560,456 plastic straws

137,072 plastic shopping bags

2,661,984 disposable water bottles

1,051,908 plastic fruit and veggie produce bags

Amazing results, don't you think? These figures show the significant impact that can be created by the collective power of your individual actions. We call it "The Power of One". *These figures were calculated based on the number of reusable items that Biome's customers purchased from our online store and four Brisbane stores in the past 12 months. We then researched patterns of behaviour for each type of item and applied conservative estimates to the number of times our customers would re-use those items instead of using the throwaway alternative. We were careful not to over-exaggerate our estimates!

Biome Founder, Tracey Bailey, shares:

We did the sums and were staggered by the result of saving millions of throwaway items just last year--and Biome has been on a mission to change habits and offer reusable alternatives for 14 years! Imagine how much waste our awesome community has saved over that time.

Together with you our customers, we prove that the power is in the people. Consumers possess immense power to create significant change through their everyday purchases and actions. Our cumulative use of convenience products is affecting our planet greatly and while the problems on a global scale can seem overwhelming, on a personal level they are surmountable.

Australia's dependence on landfill as a waste management system is increasing at a compound growth rate of 7.8 per cent per annum. We use approximately one billion disposable coffee cups each year, making this single use item one of the largest contributors to waste along with plastic bottles and bags.

And, it's not just about the waste at the end, but also the precious non-renewable resources that go into making those takeaway items in the first place. The environmental repercussions of disposable coffee cups begin well before we purchase a coffee starting with the precious natural resources that are used to make them, and pollutants that are emitted to manufacture and transport the cups.

Take the power of one, multiply it by thousands, and you have millions!