Official 2005 Australian ‘Local Hero’ an environmentalist
by TreeHugger on 01.25.05
In a recent Q&A post about retail carry bags we mentioned how whole towns in Australia had gone disposable Plastic Bag Free. Well, the man responsible for the first town to do that and the subsequent adoption by many others has just been named national ‘Local Hero’ in the annual Australia Day Awards. Ben Kearney, a bakery owner, in Tasmania’s Coles Bay, managed to help convince the entire town, including two supermarkets to ban plastic shopping bags. It aided the town’s tourism as it reduced litter in a nearby national park and was less of a threat to the whale migration route. In the first year the town saved the use of 350,000 bags and won the state’s top environmental award. Nowadays Australians of all walks-of-life carry their reusable Go-Green Bags with much pride, as if it were a Prada. It's true. Well done Ben! What did Margaret Mead say? “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For indeed that’s all who ever have”. ::Australian of the Year [by WM]
