Yo-Chi chief brand officer Oliver Allis is a bit of an eco-warrior. The leader of Australia’s largest frozen yoghurt chain refuses to sell bottled water, insists on compostable cups and spoons, has rolled out reusable KeepCup bowls, and visited Brazil in 2024 to switch to a more ethical acai supplier.
Now he has gone a step further. As of this week, every Yo-Chi store across the country will encourage customers to sign free postcards, personally addressed to local MPs of that electorate, calling them to take up a “pledge” against single-use plastic.
“We’ve never done something like this before,” Allis said.
“We want the MPs to realise that their local communities want change in plastic. At the moment, they don’t feel like there’s enough pressure from the public … so we’re trying to get plastic reforms on top of the pile through Yo-Chi’s community.”
Inspired by The Plastic Country, a 73-minute documentary that tracks how microplastics and toxic chemicals end up in wildlife, hospitals and humans, Allis discussed the topic with filmmaker Kal Glanznig during a surfing session in Byron Bay two months ago.
He learnt that plastic pollution has fallen down the national priority list, even though there was near-universal acknowledgement across the political spectrum about its damaging effects on the environment. He also learnt Australians generate about 60 kilograms of single-use plastic per person, behind the US, but roughly four times the global average.
“The environment is just so low on people’s agendas. Unless it’s forced, then no one’s really going to do it,” said Allis.
“I don’t know many people who would write to their MP or do anything like that, but I know a lot of people who get Yo-Chi,” he said. “If there was a free postcard that you could just write your name on and post it and feel good about doing that action, that’s amazing.”
‘We are in a country that isn’t doing its best’
The postcard itself is light on detail. One side has a colourful and cheekily subversive message and a QR code to the documentary. The other side points to Australia’s missed targets on packaging due to reliance on “voluntary instead of mandatory schemes”, and calls MPs to make the vague commitment: “Absolutely, Positively, No More Plastic Country”. Some space is provided for a personal message.
You have to look for the fine print. At the bottom of The Plastic Country’s website is a pledge to the following: introduce a mandatory national scheme for plastic producers to fully fund the collection of the plastic packaging they create, including mandatory targets around reduction and reuse, fast-tracking a national scheme for soft plastics, and more action across all levels of government.
The pledge also calls for “new rules” that would ban single-use plastic at major stadiums, government offices and public events, and a personal commitment from MPs to ditch single-use cups and take-away boxes.
The goal is for the federal government to scrap the existing voluntary framework, which is self-regulated and has missed its own packaging targets, in favour of an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme, backed by a broad alliance of environmental groups and the waste and recycling industry. Even major supermarkets Woolworths, Coles and Aldi and global food and beverage producers (Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Mars and more) are pushing for this scheme, which they say creates a fairer playing field and helps them avoid a patchwork of state laws.
“It’s an issue that can be solved tomorrow if government wanted to. It’s so easy. Like, all the solutions exist,” said Glanznig, who had his urine tested as part of the documentary and found high levels of phthalates, a chemical compound heavily linked to male infertility.
So far, only five MPs have pledged, most of whom are “teal” politicians and independents – Monique Ryan, Allegra Spender and Nicolette Boele, according to The Plastic Country’s pledge tracker.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will probably not be able to escape the postcards either. Yo-Chi’s store in Newtown, Sydney, is in his electorate of Grayndler.
After independent MP for Indi Helen Haines lost both her legs in an alleged attack last week, does Allis worry Yo-Chi’s postcards might inadvertently fuel unsavoury messages?
“It’s all quite jovial with a somewhat serious undertone,” he said. Team members will mail the postcards once a week and vet them to ensure no insults or abuse get mailed, he said. “We just want [customers] to draw, like, a turtle or something, say ‘can you please pledge your support?’”
Based on early feedback, staff have been pleased to see Yo-Chi take up arms. “Gen Z and Gen Alpha are very value-centric,” said Allis.
“We want to do heaps more of this stuff, mainly focused on environmental, but a lot of community action as well. This is the main era for Yo-Chi in the next few years.”
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