Turning the tide on single use plastics

Single use plastics – be gone! Westhaven Marina is proud to have jumped on board in support of the Marina Industries Association (MIA) Policy to eliminate all single use plastics from member marinas by 2025.

By pledging to eliminate single use plastics within Westhaven Marina, initial changes that have been made include; marina staff only using Panuku keep

cups instead of takeaway coffee cups, using a worm farm in the staff kitchen, only using compostable rubbish bags – instead of plastic, using cardboard alternatives to plastic, having Green Gorilla recycling and compost bins located throughout the marina for general use, and using available channels to educate and encourage others to eliminate their use of plastic too.

Education is a key component to stimulating change, and it’s really encouraging to see Westhaven Marina tenant, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS) being involved with the sustainability movement too. RNZYS have partnered with ‘Sailors for the Sea’ to achieve a clean regatta status for two of their recent regattas; the Harken Youth International Match Racing Cup and the Harken 2020 Youth Match Racing World Championships. 

Westhaven Marina is pleased to see the initiatives that are in motion and is working towards hitting many more sustainability milestones in the near future. “it’s so encouraging to see how invested people and entities within the marina have been with making changes to support the environment and ocean.” Says Heidi Clarke, of Westhaven Marina “Everyone is so enthusiastic, and I just love that”.