Biodiversutton mobilizing against plastic

Created a mere three weeks ago, Biodiversutton is a group that is rallying its community to give mother Earth a hand with one of her biggest nuisances: plastic.

On Saturday, June 2, the group had its first event, which according to organizer Richard Leclerc, was a huge success

“The whole thing was very spontaneous,” said Leclerc of the creation of the new environmentally friendly group. “It seems that with issues like this there’s a lot of talk and no action. Well, we decided to take action.”

“It went splendidly well,” he continued. “The weather was fantastic, and tons of people stopped by to ask what we were doing. I think we opened up a lot of dialogue, which was exactly what we wanted.”

Inspired by the Plastic Attack movement that is making waves around the world, the Sutton chapter of the movement tackled the issue a little more gently than its counterparts in Europe or Montreal.

“When groups have done things like on that table,” he said. “When you’re this in other parts of the world, it’s been at home, you’re unwrapping things one kind of aggressive. They’ll tell people to by one and putting it all away. You don’t unwrap things in store and just throw get to see the scope of unnecessary waste the trash on the ground,” explained the way people got to Saturday.” Leclerc. “We adapted it into something The work of Biodiversutton did not friendlier.” only catch the attention of consumers either,

Biodiversutton teamed up with the according to Leclerc. Lusignan family, who owns the IGA in “We hope that by doing activities like Sutton, and worked under the Sutton this, we bring awareness to everyone, Zero Plastic movement to plan their “attack”. even those all the way at the top. One guy on Saturday approached us and

“Our goal was to educate and bring asked if the butcher would accept to put awareness to the issue. The Lusignans his wares directly into containers he were more than happy to help us,” said brought from home, rather than have to Leclerc. “From 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. we go through the store’s packaging were set up at a table outside the IGA process. We said: well, let’s ask. And we and we invited people to come unwrap did! The butcher had no problem with it, their unnecessarily packaged goods. We and neither did the fishmonger,” he also brought alternatives to plastic, like said. “It’s the kind of thing that gets to mason jars and paper bags, to put their the ears of the big bosses. A lot of people groceries in instead.” don’t think of asking for things like that,

Leclerc said that though they were they don’t think it’s allowed, but now not doing anything that most people they know. And if the bosses know that wouldn’t do themselves at home, that is, they know, maybe something will to unwrap, recycle and re-package their change.” food, it is the visual element he wanted “They won’t mind not making plastic to achieve. bags and such, they’ll save money in the

“We literally had mountains of plastic long run anyway!” laughed Leclerc. “It’s all over the news: recycling plants are overwhelmed with work. The solution here is to reduce our consumption of plastic. Not just recycle it.”

The founder of Biodiversutton also commented that this wasn’t the first time Sutton mobilized to be more ecofriendly, nor will it be the last, according to him.

“We have tons of other actions planned, this is just the beginning,” he said. “Just two years ago at the town council meeting, we voted to ban 500ml water bottles from official town establishments. It passed. I run the Sutton museum too, and there are no traces of plastic bottles there! At the next meeting, July 1, we’re going to propose to ban plastic bags and straws.”

“It’s definitely a lot of work,” said Leclerc, alluding to the number of volunteers and man-power required to organize the gentle “plastic attack”. “But we can’t stop now!”

To check out Biodiversutton’s next move or to get involved with the cause, visit their Facebook page.