A handful of Deep Cove merchants are superstars within the zero-waste community after successfully getting the Cove to be the first neighbourhood in Metro Vancouver to become plastic-straw free.
Now the group is taking it a step further by aiming to replace single-use takeout bags and containers as part of their aim to make the Cove a zero-waste zone.
Bluhouse Market & Café owner Jen McCarthy along with Megan Curren of Room6, Erian Baxter, co-owner of Deep Cove Canoe & Kayak, and Alison Wood of Ocean Ambassadors Canada all plan to reduce single-use plastics in the Cove in the coming months with reusable alternatives.
“We know it’s not going to be easy (to eliminate Styrofoam and plastic bags) because we learned that the first time around, but it’s so damaging, it’s so heartbreaking,” said McCarthy. “I think it’s work that needs to happen, and we’re happy to be part of the conversation.”
The group wants to introduce reusable and returnable containers to limit the use of Styrofoam containers and plastic bags within the community. As a solution to plastic and paper cups, they’ve thrown around the idea of implementing reusable cups that tourists and locals can use with a deposit fee.
“There are practical reasons why people would want to keep using plastic bags, but there are also creative solutions,” said Wood. “I think we really view (eliminating plastic straws) as the first step in a continuum of helping people create a plastic reduction strategy.”
In addition to their alternative solutions, the merchants are also in the process of producing stickers for the restaurants on the Cove that will say “Ocean Ambassadors certified” and have a starfish as their logo.
“The idea would be like there’s a continuum of things and so each business could work along of progressing to get more starfish,” explained Wood.
Living and having their business on the shore of the Cove, the environmental advocates have seen the negative effects of single-use plastics right on the waters of their community.
“Every time you go out (on the ocean) you find something, you either find Styrofoam from something or you find a plastic water bottle floating by or you find some other bits of plastic – it’s really out there,” said Baxter who also co-owns Deep Cove Outdoors.
A month into Deep Cove ditching plastic straws the response from the locals and the tourists has been amazing, according to McCarthy.
“I have to say 90 per cent of the conversations we’ve had have been really positive,” said McCarthy. “I will say there is a small group of people that are not clued in. I guess they’re not sensitive to it and it seems like it’s a bit of an inconvenience for them to ask for straw... that’s a little harder to deal with, but it’s well worth the time that takes to have that conversation for the 90 per cent of conversations that are going so well.”
Bluhouse makes many smoothies for locals and visitors alike in this active community. McCarthy explained that just by breaking the habit of using straws, by not putting them out on the counter, it has decreased the Bluhouse’s straw usage. In May alone Bluhouse staff handed out 9,000 paper straws, as opposed to their average of 18,000 plastic straws a month.
“I think the most important thing to me is that is not about replacing plastic for paper, it’s about reducing it ... and I think redefining what convenience means, (which) has actually led us to this global plastic crisis,” Curren said.
Prior to switching to their blue-and-white striped paper straws, made by an Edmonton-based eco-friendly company called Greenmunch, Bluhouse used compostable straws. But McCarthy quickly learned that paper or reusable straws were the way to go because ultimately, even if a plastic is labelled as degradable, it doesn’t break down any faster and still ends up in our waters.
“You can’t just put them in your compost, they have to go to a composting facility and they have to be under quite high heat … but what happens is they end up either contaminating the other streams of recyclables or going into the regular garbage and into the landfill,” McCarthy explained.
Meanwhile, at Mt. Seymour this past winter staff stopped giving out straws in the restaurant, unless asked, which limited their usage.
The borders for the merchants’ movement have stretched outside of Deep Cove and support from communities all over the province have overwhelmed the group’s inboxes.
“This is what we really wanted was to inspire and encourage other people,” said McCarthy.
Schools from all over the North Shore have also reached out to the women and have even sent them signed petitions from students who want the municipality to implement policies to reduce plastic waste.
“The merchants are now educating the public and I think Ocean Ambassadors is doing a good job with hitting almost all the schools on the North Shore, so it’ll be the kids driving that change,” said Wood.
Deep Cove has also been chosen by the District of North Vancouver as one of the locations to undertake a pilot project that will audit any waste the community is creating over a period of time. The pilot project, which is anticipated to start next month, will allow the district to understand what kind of waste the community is creating and what solutions there are to decrease it.
“I know that to solve this problem on a bigger scale we have to work with our municipality because ultimately single-waste trash is going to enter the recycling or waste stream,” said Curren, who is working with the DNV on the project.
All four of the women have said the most rewarding part about this whole movement is meeting each other and the important relationships they’ve created through this experience.
“This wouldn’t have happened without a group of people that all came together with different skill sets ... it has been wonderful to form friendships over working on a project that we all care this much about,” said McCarthy. “I think it’s going to give us the power to tackle the next thing, whatever it is.”
