As the darker evenings roll in and our Cherished summer guests on their St Ives holiday head home, the Cherished Cottages team have a little more breathing space to think on some projects close to our own hearts.
The crisis of plastic in our environment has been highly publicised for several years; it is one of the most pressing environmental issues and during a long summer of beach days, sea swims and sunsets galore the prominence of our environmental footprint is at the forefront of our everyday decisions.
Therefore, with a nudge from beach bum and Cherished Cottages Property Manager Molly, we as a company have made the decision to eliminate the guest toiletries provided in our properties in accordance with the Plastic-Free St Ives campaign.
The Plastic-Free St Ives campaign was set up in early 2018, part of the wider Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) Plastic-Free Communities initiative, and is an accreditation scheme whereby they hope to earn St Ives, Carbis Bay and Lelant ‘Plastic-Free’ status, by minimising our plastic footprint. The campaign is not focused on eradicating all plastic from our lives, but it is the avoidable and single-use plastic items (eg toiletries as well as straws, bags, sauce sachets etc) that the campaign aims to reduce and ideally eliminate.
The conversation is ever ongoing with our wonderful owners and we together have agreed to rid the company of plastic toiletries by phasing them out at some properties and donating the remaining stocks of others to St Petrocs Society, who are working to end street homelessness in Cornwall, the Salvation Army in St Ives and West Cornwall Women’s Aid.
By no means are we proclaiming our plastic-free status just yet, but as a company we will continue to keep listening, thinking, adapting and moving forward with this important movement adopted by many residents, businesses and organisations in our beautiful patch of the world.
We will continue to provide our yummy Welcome Hamper to all Cherished guests, with locally sourced and sustainably packaged goodies.
Here’s our top ten tips on how you can cut down on your single-use plastics on your holiday to St Ives:
1.Get on board with Cherished Cottages new toiletries ban. Why not try responsibly sourced shampoo bars- from Lush– a responsible company that have a strong commitment to safeguarding our environment. Or try products from the Cornish Seaweed Bath Company, hand-crafted and inspired by the wild and ever changing Cornish coast, perfect!
2. Re-fillable water bottles. Around the world, one million plastic bottles are bought every minute. This figure is expected to increase by 20% by 2021 [1]. Download the Refill App, to find local filling up stations and save buying plastic bottles.
Or, grab a delicious coffee from the Yallah coffee kiosk on the harbour front in your KeepCup. Yallah are a Cornish company that believe in sourcing sustainable coffee and their environmental responsibility.
3. Shop local. Try the scrumptious Allotment Deli, on Fore Street, priding themselves on offering Cornish local, fresh produce.
4. #2MinuteBeachClean has been a growing social media movement since 2014, supported by beach lovers all over the globe with the joint aim of ridding our beaches of plastic.
5. 2 minutes not enough? Volunteer at a local community beach clean, a perfect way to get tips on where to eat and visit in St Ives from us locals.
6. Eat local ice creams in cones, avoid the plastic tubs and spoons… yum!
7. Bring home local sustainably packaged souvenirs perhaps some local jams or better yet, a bottle of St Ives Gin.
8. Sun cream and after sun in tins is now an option and the market is ever expanding, try the Surfers Against Sewage online shop.
9. Remember to only flush the 3 Ps, anything else goes in the bin (including the ‘flushable’ wipes) to help prevent sewage related plastic in the sea.
10. Every summer, our property management team find bodyboards and wetsuits left behind. Next year why not hire quality gear from the lovely chaps at St Ives Surf School on Porthmeor Beach.
To find out more ways to get involved at a local or national level, please visit https://www.sas.org.uk/our-work/plastic-pollution/
[1] House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. Plastic Bottles: Turning Back The Plastic Tide. 2017.