For those of you that don’t know us, welcome! My name is Sam, and I’m the co-founder of bettercup. I’m writing to you from bettercup’s wash hub in Keysborough, VIC. We recently got a Sustainability Victoria Grant to upgrade our washing and reusable cup manufacturing, and now we can wash and dry over 3,000 cups per hour, and manufacture 3,000 cups per day here in Melbourne.

Berish Bilander is a passionate campaigner, an accomplished musician with an Honours degree from WAAPA, a music teacher for 12 years and has toured as a freelance pianist for Vika, Linda and The General Assembly. He’s also the CEO of Green Music Australia, a registered charity that aims to green the music industry and which bettercup partners with for Party with the Planet, a campaign that encourages consumers to think about the waste they produce at festivals. 

Sigh, we know. Ban plastic, #plasticfree. Plastic is still a huge part of our lives in general, whether we like it or not.

Jayden Bath is the director of the Loch Hart Festival, a three day camping, BYO event with an all Australian lineup set in Princetown, Victoria. It has been running since the inaugural 2018 event, and sadly due to Covid, has been cancelled for 2020, but is already locked in for November 2021. Christie and I were lucky enough to attend the 2019 iteration. We arrived late on the Friday night to a relaxed vibe, and immediately made friends with around 10 other punters.

For the first #goodchat, Sam spoke with Jason (Jace), carpenter, Earthship builder and founder of the wonderful organisation B-Alternative who provide practical solutions to help events reduce their waste all over Australia.

I feel like 99% of the people that care about the environment are also hypocrites. There. I said it and that also includes myself.

But wait, please let me explain.

2018 so far seems to be THE year to have discussions around plastic. Now more than ever we are bombarded with information that impedes factual and informed decision making and people and businesses alike are increasingly exposed to swift judgement online regarding their sustainability practices (or lack thereof).

We were excited to attend the Sustainable Living Festival’s ‘Big Weekend’ that was held for 3 days on the banks of Birrarung Marr in Melbourne. The National Sustainable Living Festival aims to accelerate the uptake of sustainable living and seeks solutions to global warming that will return the planet to a safe climate as fast as humanly possible.

Turns out when you wash your clothes, towels and blankets that are made of synthetic materials, they release tiny microfibres into your washing machine. Your washing machine drains into your sewer pipe. Your sewer pipe goes to a treatment plant, which removes all the debris and organic matter. Well, it removes most the debris. It can’t filter out all the microfibres from your load of washing.

Once “everything” has been filtered out, the “clean” water can be released into the environment.

Recycle, closed loop, zero waste, circular economy, reuse.

We all know the words carry weight, but what are they trying to achieve exactly?