Members of the Gloucester Environment Group saw how Dungog turned itself into a vibrant, nation-leading business community by becoming single-use plastic-free, and they wanted to see the same thing happen in Gloucester.

The Dungog project rolled out in November 2018 with plans to make the community single-use plastic-free by July 2019.

And now Gloucester is on track for the same thing, following an information night held in November 2019 and plans to go full steam ahead in 2020.

According to GEG member Michalie Fry, Gloucester will be one of the early adopters of the project outside of Dungog, with the status requiring businesses to tick six items on a checklist - no single-use plastic bags, no plastic straws, no plastic water bottles, no plastic cutlery, no plastic takeaway containers, and participation in a coffee cup recycling project.

"So far the response has been very positive among the community and with business owners," Michalie said. "We've even had a few new members join the team."

The project is driven by passion for the community and for sustainability.

"We believe there is a future in green tourism and Gloucester could benefit from our amazing natural environment and build on it," Michalie said.

"We've seen the benefit for the Dungog community. It could lift our community and its resilience."

This passion for the environment is shared by cafe owner Mel Rentell who has 57 Gloucester already on a journey to sustainability.

When she and co-owner Kieren Moore bought the business in October 2016, pretty much everything for takeaway was single-use plastic.

Together they've been actively working toward reducing their footprint, switching to recyclable or compostable products wherever they can.

This involves understanding what products can be recycled in the Mid Coast region and trialing different products, like straws to make sure they work well in their milkshakes but do eventually start to breakdown.

According to Mel, the cafe is completely single-use plastic-free except for the rubber gloves needed to meet the food health safety requirement.

"Although you have good intentions, due to health and safety, you can only do so much, but you have to start somewhere," Mel said.

And despite the cost difference, for Mel, it's more about the future of the planet her son is growing up in.

"It's very easy to fall into the trap of cutting costs to survive when weighing up the costs versus the cost to our future resources.

"We have a responsibility to the sustainability of our industry," she said.

Michalie said the plan is for the group to work with the businesses to help find financially feasible solutions and make the transition quite simple.

Some businesses are even looking to take things one step further, trying to address other issues not covered by the Blue Planet status.

One such business owner is Melissa Leitch, who owns the Elk and Willow clothing boutique, and while she's already using paper bags in store, she's not happy about the amount of plastic packing that comes with her stock.

She's now looking at ways she can work together with other business to get the packing recycled responsibility.