On the same day the States announced their plans to gain ‘Plastic Free Coastline’ status by working with Surfers Against Sewage and local eco-activists on a national campaign, André Vitel (pictured, left) took to social media to urge customers to think about their environmental footprint.

But it wasn’t the Government’s initiative that spurred him on the waste-cutting move – it was a man crying about the amount of plastic found in a whale washed up in Norway that made him take action.

“I watched a documentary called ‘Plastic Whale’ on Sky last week – it was about the whale that was washed up on Norway with its stomach full of plastic. There was a local man who had seen the whale and watched what’s happened over the years with plastic and he was in tears,” André explained. “Seeing a grown man cry really pulled at the heart-strings, especially with all the other news about plastic with the David Attenborough programmes. It gave me another push.”

 

Video: The large amount of plastic found inside a stranded whale in Norway last year hit headlines across the world. (Euronews/YouTube)

Unfortunately, André’s first attempt at asking his customers to bring in their own reuseable containers fell on deaf ears. He teamed up with local eco-activist Sheena Brockie last year when she started her mission of reducing waste, and advertised his plastic reducing initiative on her Facebook page ‘The Good Jersey Life’ and put a sign in his shop window, but “not one customer brought in their own containers – no-one even asked about the sign,” André recalled.

He hopes this second attempt – at a time when plastic pollution is heavily featured in the news – will receive a different response. It seems to be the case from the initial feedback on his Facebook post, which has now been viewed over 12,000 times in less than 24 hours and attracted many positive comments including one from fellow local butcher ‘Brooklands Farm’ who also supported the idea for their customers.

Pictured: André took to Facebook in a second attempt to cut the amount of plastic used in his business.

André says all his customers have to do is bring in a different container for each meat product they buy: “You can bring in anything as long as it has a lid. You can even use a washed jam jar if you like, or a Pyrex dish as they are made from glass so even less plastic.

“We just pop it in on the weighing scales and press the zero button so it doesn’t take the weight of the container – just as you would do at home when you’re baking.”

As a keen surfer for over thirty years, André has seen the level of plastic waste in the oceans first-hand. He said: “I’ve been surfing all over the world, Bali, Hawaii, and there was plastic in the ocean back then. It can only be worse now, even in Jersey whilst I’ve been out paddling my hand got stuck in a plastic bag.”

The St. John butcher hopes his customers get behind the initiative to help cut the island’s plastic, as he believes the “future isn’t looking good” if we don’t make some small changes within the community. When asked if his second attempt will work, André told Express: “I really hope so, I really hope it carries on and it’s not just a five-minute wonder… Now is definitely the time to take action, we should have done it a long time ago but now’s the time to make it work.”

Lead photo: Butcher André Vitel standing with his son Declan outside his business.