Initiative embraced

Edgar Insurance Brokers account executive Michelle Vance said the idea came from the group’s Cobram office, which stumbled across an initiative called Envision Hands.

‘‘In Victoria you can recycle your bottles, but not the caps — they can’t be recycled in the same way,’’ Ms Vance said.

‘‘So Envision Hands has come up with the idea of turning those caps, whether it be drink bottles, soft drink bottles, even your little bread clips — into prosthetic hands and arms for kids.

‘‘They’re making these limbs in amazing designs, so it is really special for these kids.

‘‘They can ask for a superman or wonder-woman hand, for example, or whoever their favourite superhero is.

‘‘And it takes the stigma away from having a prosthetic limb and makes it something a bit more fun. I think it’s absolutely fantastic.’’

Edgar Insurance Brokers is now one of the official collection points for Envision Hands in Victoria.

‘‘People can bring their caps and things here, or to our Cobram office, we pass them on — and for every 500 caps that is a hand or an arm for a child that needs it,’’ Ms Vance said. ‘‘We’re really excited to be involved. After Julie at our Cobram office made us aware of this we jumped on board straight away.

‘‘Within a week we purchased a new yellow recycling bin, which we have in the doorway here, and people can come in and pop their used bottle caps in that.

‘‘And we want to spread the word as our Cobram Office has found that a lot of businesses, as well as community members, are dropping off their caps.

‘‘So we hope the Benalla business community will jump on board, too.

‘‘Whether it’s one of our local café’s or even mum or dad at home who buy a lot of bottles for school lunches and things like that.

‘‘All they need to do is collect the tops and drop them off here.

‘‘This is a great initiative, not only are we helping children who need help, it also addresses an important environmental issue.’’

And when it comes to environmental issues Benalla businesses seem to do their bit.

One of those businesses is One Wild Apple Cafe who recently took measures to reduce their plastic use.

‘‘When you work in cafe you see a lot of plastic most days,’’ One Wild Apple owner Shannon Tharratt said.

‘‘I felt like it was time to counteract some of our plastic use, and had been thinking about ways to reduce our use of soft plastics in particular.

‘‘One of our staff members had the idea of taking our reusable fruit and veg bags, which we take to the supermarket, and using them to pick up other items like bread, removing the need for the baker to pop the loaves into plastic bags.

‘‘We buy fresh bread every day, like other products, and most manufactures package their goods in plastic.

‘‘So we would go through a few of those bags each day. And they’re soft plastic which is the more difficult type to break down.

‘‘We had already made the swap with our take away coffee cups, and we only use the compostable ones now.

‘‘And we have eliminated the amount of plastic straws we use. Plus we also encourage our customers to bring keep-cups — and offer a small discount for everybody who does that.’’

One Wild Apple also stocks a range of merchandise made by PlasticWise Benalla, which includes fabric shopping bags.

●If your local business has taken initiatives to reduce plastic use let us know via editor@benallaensign.com.au as we are always happy to publicise this type of initiative.