AN ENVIRONMENTALLY conscious businesswoman is on a mission to drum up enough like-minded people to turn Poole officially “plastic-free”.

Samantha Prewett Photography has recently become a plastic-free business champion for the town – and needs 79 businesses to achieve the same status.

That level of support would make Poole officially a “plastic-free community”.

Samantha Prewett, who photographs newborn babies and families, said: “I first heard about the award back in January and as a very eco-conscious family I thought it would be great to get my business on board too so I contacted Go Pladdle (Oceans to Earth) for more information.

“You have to start off with a plastic audit of your business; it is surprising when you write down all the plastic that you use but not necessarily think about, even when it comes to plastic pens, which obviously end up in the bin like all other plastic items that cannot be recycled.

“To qualify for the award, you should make three changes of single use plastic items which you use in your day-to-day business.

“The first thing I swapped was plastic parcel tape. I cannot believe that I always used plastic parcel tape now and have swapped to brown paper tape which not only looks better, it is also stronger and eco-friendly.

“The second item of single use plastic that I swapped were my cellophane print bags which I used to send out photography prints. Initially, I was a little worried that prints might not be well protected and would get scratched while putting them into an envelope but that proved wrong as my clients confirmed their prints arrived in perfect condition. Single prints go straight into card envelopes now, but larger packages of prints get wrapped in tissue paper and a sticker. This also looks much nicer than a plastic bag.

“The third item was a bit harder for me as it involved food packaging. I was sending out handmade chocolate cameras to my clients which were in transparent plastic food packets. It took me some time to research eco-friendly alternatives, but I eventually came up with the idea of sweets paper bags which I could use and just fold over at the opening and pop a sticker on.

“Unfortunately, Covid-19 has put a temporary stop to me giving out the chocolate cameras at present, but hopefully I can return giving these to my customers at some point next year.”

She added: “”The more we share and shout about going plastic-free, the more people will hear about the positive impact of cutting down on single use plastic. Just think how we could positively impact and improve our environment if everyone could cut out 3 single use plastic items from their business or life.”

Successful applicants for status as plastic-free champions are given a certificate and wooden plaque and can use the plastic-free logo.

Details of the campaign are at are at oceanstoearth.com