Two cafés in west Dorset have won awards for minimising their everyday use of plastic.
The Hive Beach Café in Burton Bradstock and one of its sister cafés, The Club House in West Bexington, have both won the 'Plastic Free Champion' award following their initiative to reduce how much plastic they use.
The awards are from Surfers Against Sewage, and is given to businesses that remove a minimum of three items of single use plastic from their everyday operations.
Friday, February 4, was a busy lunchtime at the Hive Beach Café with the launch of their new biodegradable takeaway packaging and an award presentation.
On the day, Bridport’s mayor and mayoress, Ian and Anne Bark, were invited to present the cafe's operational manager, Andrew Hartley, and executive chef, Lewis Ford, with the awards for each business.
To celebrate their new packaging, the Hive Beach Café also gave away 20 of them, filled with a free portion of its fish and chips.
Mayor and Mayoress of Bridport Ian and Anne Bark tuck into fish and chips served in the new packaging
The Hive and its sister cafés, the Watch House Café at West Bay and The Club House at West Bexington, are the first in Dorset to use the new biodegradable boxes made by Notpla. They are 100 per cent biodegradable as they use seaweed and plant extracts to line the boxes, which biodegrades in as little as four to six weeks.
Cllr Bark said: “When I became mayor, one of the first things I did was to target Bridport to become a plastic free community.
“What the Hive Beach Company has done for removing plastics and being environmentally friendly is great, as well as the support you give people at the beach cleans, with free coffee and tea (in recyclable cups) – which all helps to oil the wheels.”
A spokesman for the Hive Beach Café said: “We are delighted with the 'Plastic Free Champion Award' as we are firm believers in recycling, sustainability and doing more to reduce waste. We already recycle our cardboard, glass and oil and are reducing our single use plastic too - and we're very pleased with our new 100 per cent biodegradable takeaway boxes.
"We plan to continue our plastic free journey as each of our three cafe sites sit right on the beach, so we're keenly aware of our surroundings, and want to do our bit for the environment to become as plastic free as we can."
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