Source: Plastic Free Communities. Credit: Surfers Against Sewage
Not so fantastic?
Many of the reasons we find plastic so incredibly useful – it’s extremely cheap, versatile, waterproof and durable – are what also make it such an environmental hazard. When we throw it away, it doesn’t go away. Instead, it becomes plastic pollution that can alter habitats and natural processes, directly affecting people’s livelihoods and food production.
There is an answer and it’s not recycling.
The latest Big Plastic Count survey by Greenpeace and fellow NGO, Everyday Plastic, in April 2024 revealed that UK households chuck out 1.7 billion pieces of plastic every week. Of this, only 17% is recycled in the UK, as our systems simply cannot handle the enormous number of items coming through. A whopping 58% is incinerated – creating harmful emissions which pollute the air we breathe.
Shops that minimise the environmental impact of our consumer habits are springing up across Britain. Over the past two years, well over 100 Zero Waste Shops have opened for business. Many are in environmental hotspots such as Brighton, Bath, Bristol, Stroud and north-east London, but they’re opening in plenty of other areas too.
It will take concerted community action to stem the tide of plastic and move to reduced and sustainable packaging. Plastic Free Communities (PFC) is just such a grassroots campaign, set up by Surfers Against Sewage. Their vision is to connect and empower communities to free our homes, streets, green spaces, rivers and beaches of avoidable, throwaway plastic, and to send a powerful message to the businesses who continue to proliferate its use.
Find out more about Plastic Free Communities in our Carbon Copy Podcast episode, Bottle By Bottle.
What can I do?
1. Stage a Mass Unwrap in your community, and link with other communities to encourage a local Mass Unwrap movement. At one event in Mold, Wales, they collected a two-metre-high cage of packaging, after encouraging local shoppers, town and county councillors, local churches and schools to join in.
2. Use your local zero waste shop! Shops that minimise the environmental impact of our consumer habits are springing up across Britain. Over the past two years, well over 100 Zero Waste Shops have opened for business. Many are in environmental hotspots such as Brighton, Bath, Bristol, Stroud and north-east London, but they’re opening in plenty of other areas too.
3. Start a conversation about plastic. A lot of people assume that because most plastics are now recyclable, that there is no need to reduce our reliance on them. Sometimes talking about this issue with colleagues, customers and others in your community can be challenging. The Grantham Institute has produced a helpful guide to help businesses and organisations use language more effectively to encourage reuse before recycling.
More related community actions
Take the next step…
Would like your local community to become officially Plastic Free? There’s lots of practical help available to get you started.
There’s a fantastic knowledge hub here at UKPOS to guide your team in setting up your own Zero Waste Shop.
Do you live on the coast? Ocean plastic is a well-documented, serious problem, so why not set up a beach clean to clear up all that plastic waste that gets washed up on shores around the UK? The Marine Conservation Society offers instructions for how to organise your own beach clean – and get other local people involved.
Thrifting is a better way of shopping that helps to reduce the overproduction of garments (and is on trend!), so check out your second-hand shops first or even host a clothes swap event, at your school or community centre or a place of worship.
Join an existing project
You’ll find a list of all the Plastic Free Communities in the UK on the Surfers Against Sewage’s website and these groups are always looking for more members to help, so why not join in? If you live near a beach, chances are there’ll be a beach clean sometime during the year and plastic rubbish always constitutes a high proportion of what’s found. The Marine Conservation Society has a constantly updated list of beach cleans coming up.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to be an expert in sustainability: a whole range of skills is needed to guarantee the success of projects like these and it’ll also be possible to learn as you go.