Village Zero Sandringham – case study

Background

The Sandringham Traders Association (STA) has been working in partnership with the local community and Village Zero Sandringham to revitalise the area. Village Zero Sandringham is a community initiative that aims to transition Sandringham Village into a net-zero precinct by promoting and encouraging sustainability projects.

STA and Village Zero Sandringham identified better waste management to achieve their targets and developed a program to end single-use packaging. To achieve this and to demonstrate how to avoid, replace, and reuse food packaging, the STA applied for a Sustainability Victoria Circular Economy Reuse Pilots Fund grant. In January 2022 the STA was awarded $32,000 to run a Village Zero’s Plastic Free Pilot at Sandringham Village.

The program

Sandringham Village is made up of a range of businesses, including 34 diverse food outlets. Village Zero Sandringham recognised that a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn’t work to eliminating single-use packaging in the local community. So it designed and implemented two reuse pilot systems.

The first system focused on Bring Your Own (BYO) containers. For this system, customers were encouraged to bring their own clean, undamaged containers for refilling at participating venues. The STA also partnered with BYO Containers to raise awareness of the impact of single-use packaging.

The second system provided reusable containers for food-serving businesses. STA purchased a fleet of reusable containers in different shapes and sizes for participating food outlets. And food servers were helped to encourage customers to use them.

For this system, customers paid a $2 deposit for an Infinity Box container or cup. They could then return that container or cup to any participating business, either as a swap or for a refund. STA has also bought Returnr Workplace Micropool sets, which include various reusable food storage products developed by Returnr for workplaces. These were offered to other businesses with more than 5 employees in Sandringham Village, such as real estate agents and medical centres.

The process

The STA team conducted a survey to understand the challenges and opportunities faced by hospitality venues to transition away from single-use packaging and towards reusables. As an incentive they gave free drinks at the February and March twilight markets to everyone who completed the survey. From 182 responses the survey showed that a majority want to minimise single-use packaging and adopt reusable containers.

The STA team personally visited local food traders to discuss the reuse pilot and collect data to understand behaviours and patterns. This data informed where the team should concentrate its efforts. Based on the findings, STA held an expo at the Sandringham Life Saving club on Clean Up Australia Day to introduce local traders and community members to Infinity Box and BYO Containers.

Initially, 5 businesses signed up to participate in the reuse pilot. After repeat visits and presenting reusable items to vendors to show them how the reuse system would work in their own businesses, the number of participants in the pilot increased to 7 retailers. STA celebrated the businesses involved at a social gathering with representatives from Infinity Box and BYO Containers, who were available to answer questions.

STA also set up a stand in the local shopping centre on a Saturday morning. Local female footballers were there to introduce the Infinity Box concept to the community and give away a container or cup to anyone who was willing to opt into the system.

The team appeared on local radio, put up posters, and presented at the local council’s energy expo. They also advertised on social media, used a billboard in the precinct, and did a letter drop to local businesses and residents.

Non-food businesses, including offices and homeware shops, displayed posters and, in some instances, reusable containers in their shop fronts.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges for the STA team was engaging businesses. Not all traders could attend scheduled group meetings, and shop owners didn’t have time to go through the information provided in one sitting. This encouraged the STA team to think about how to engage businesses on an individual level and present concise information and talking points.

Communication channels were another challenge. STA found that each business needed a tailored communication method. The STA team found that a WhatsApp group and texting or calling was the best way to reach businesses.

Businesses were given hard-copy information packs and posters to encourage customers to participate in the reuse pilot. But because these businesses were time poor many didn’t display them. The STA team visited these businesses weekly to encourage them to promote this pilot and to collect data. Some of the STA team had hospitality experience, which allowed them to approach businesses with empathy for staffing and time pressures. Traders appreciated the volunteer’s efforts to reduce their costs by reducing reliance on single -use packaging.

The impact

During the 12-week pilot the Sandringham Trader’s Association achieved:

• 2,154 single-use plastic items were saved from landfill
• 924 BYO cups and containers brought into participating businesses by customers
• 145 Infinity Box deposits were made.

Thanks to this pilot, businesses and local community members embraced alternatives to single-use packaging and took opportunities to reduce their costs and rubbish throughout Sandringham Village and on the local beach.

A local bakery currently using single-use packaging also joined the pilot hoping to replace packaging with reusable items. A local grocery store now also hopes to supply some of its items in reusable containers.

Next steps

Village Zero Sandringham’s social media campaign will continue to reinforce BYO and returnable systems. The Sandy twilight market will become a BYO-container event, and the Infinity Box will be available at all market food vendors during spring and summer. While the pilot period for the Sustainability Victoria grant ended in June 2023, participating businesses will continue their subscription with Infinity Box until the end of September 2023.

In June 2023, Sustainability Victoria hosted a webinar to showcase The Village Zero – Sandringham pilot project.