How gyms can help us reduce plastic

Plastics have been a hot topic here in Australia, especially single-use plastic since the unfortunate demise of RedCycle (spoiler – work is already happening to provide a solution for this). As a result, businesses like us here at CleanLIFE have been moving quickly to provide plastic-free alternatives to everyday products. 

Why is plastic so bad? To start with, it’s the volume that we have produced … 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been made in only six decades, yet plastic takes hundreds of years to degrade naturally. So, 6.5 billion tonnes of all plastic created still exists.  That equals one billion elephants’ worth of plastic hanging around in our environment. 

For anyone prioritizing their health and well-being enough to actually make use of their gym membership, you deserve a round of applause. But if gyms are full of plastic, this actually has a direct impact on our health in a negative way.  

Broadly speaking, there are plenty of reasons why gym owners or operators should look at making their gyms more sustainable. It will be through respect from your existing members who appreciate your efforts, also attraction of new members who are searching for sustainable gyms. When you start investing in energy-saving measures, you’ll see a real benefit to your hip pocket. That might be through investing in solar panels, or LED energy-efficient lighting. 

Since COVID-19, we’ve all incorporated the sanitising step during and after our workouts, maybe using a paper towel and spray, maybe using a cloth and spray. Do either ever feel like you’ve really left the equipment ready for the next person? Our CleanLIFE range is perfect in this situation as a gym wet wipe. Not only are they high standard medical-grade wipes that clean, but gym disinfectant wipes that disinfect and sanitise against 99.99% of germs. 

By choosing plastic-free wet wipes, you are removing plastic from your gym and providing an even healthier environment to train in. Other plastic-free ideas to consider include bamboo yoga mats, sustainable flooring options, and real oxygen-generating plants instead of plastic dust-collecting and microplastic sprinkling ones. 

One final incredibly sustainable AND money-saving opportunity for gym owners and operators is electricity-generating indoor bikes that generate clean energy to power the gym’s premises with excess energy going to the grid. Wow!