The force behind the rescue
Great Plastic Rescue is an initiative delivered by Civic Futures Lab. It’s just one of the ways we’re walking the talk, with clear action that delivers tangible and measurable results.
Civic Futures Lab’s fundamental mission is value creation in a transitioning economy. We do this by merging civic innovation with environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy to achieve tangible impact across the private, public and third sectors.
We bring scalable solutions to life – from ideation to implementation – to address the myriad of challenges faced by cities, communities, citizens and our clients. We collaborate with ambitious and authentic brands with shared values, to solve real problems by amplifying their commitment to ESG whilst leveraging their commercial influence to deliver impact.
About our Founder
Bronwyn Voyce is the founder of Civic Futures Lab and is a former local government Councillor, experienced strategist, policy advisor, non-for-profit leader and executive board member. Bron is a gun at creative solution design to affect systems change and catalysing partnerships across disciplines and sectors to solve complex business and community problems. She is passionate about advancing the circular economy as a pathway to achieving Net Zero. Bron is also the national chair of the Circular Australia Industry Taskforce.
How it started
The original Great Plastic Rescue was the brain-child of two entrepreneurs Bronwyn Voyce and Amy Cobb who identified that there was no sustainable end-of-life solution for obsolete single-use plastic items affected by Queensland Government’s plastics ban back in late 2021. Their mission was simple: save banned single-use plastics from being dumped in landfill, by offering a solution to have them aggregated and reprocessed by local recyclers. The Queensland rescue mission was delivered with the support of Venlo along with project partners such as the National Retailer Association, Evolve Group, Resitech (plastic recyclers), Boomerang Alliance and The World’s Biggest Garage Sale.
In 2022, Civic Futures Lab with the support of a landmark Sustainability Partnership from the NSW Environment Protection Authority embarked on an audacious mission to achieve 10x the impact and scale in New South Wales (NSW). With the help of the Australian Retailers Association, corporate partners joined the mission and recalled stock from across Australia in a bid to support the end of single-use plastic shopping bags. The result was a mammoth 30 times more obsolete single-use plastics collected than in Queensland, following a 5,000km roadshow around the state of NSW.
While our public recovery campaigns are complete we offer bespoke rescue solutions on a commercial basis, for partners across Australia and further afield. Our focus is on building capacity and enabling businesses to make their own changes and deliver exponential results to the original Great Plastic Rescue.