Plastic Free Communities – A Year of Action

From action on Covid pollution to an upsurge in business sign ups and using their collective voice on national campaigns; 2021 has been one of the highlights of the Plastic Free Communities movement’s story so far. Here’s how it shaped up …

Kickstarting Positive Action

The PFC Conference in January was a clue as to what was to come, when almost a hundred communities joined us online to hear from inspirational voices leading the fight to protect our blue and green spaces.

Ella Daish, whose one-woman crusade in the fight against period plastic has seen the likes of Sainsbury’s, Superdrug and Aldi remove plastic from own brand products, shared her campaigning insight.

As volunteer leads planned to get out on the ground after another lockdown, Meena Rajput from Greenpeace spoke candidly on diversity and inclusion, and the importance of truly reflecting local communities.

And those looking to encourage local business to ban single-use coffee cups had a shot of motivation from Sam Roberts, CEO of Boston Tea Party, who showed how they removed 340, 000 cups a year with the move.

Alongside the launch of key actions, 2021 was off to a great start.

Million Mile Clean & Brand Audit

The Million Mile Clean launched not long after and Plastic Free Communities responded in their hundreds … registering their local clean up events with SAS to contribute to the year-long action.

We boldly stated back in March “It will be the biggest and most impactful clean up event ever” … and it was. By October we had smashed our target of a cleaning million miles across the UK.

While picking up plastic from the coast, rivers, streets and green spaces is important, we can’t clean our way out of the plastic pollution problem. So we also rolled out our Brand Audit, so communities could collect evidence to call out top polluters.

Plastic Free Communities were the volunteer cohort to make the biggest contribution to the 2021 Brand Audit, which is now being used by SAS to influence policy and decisions, including being key to calls for an all in DRS system.

Covid -19 and the impact on plastic pollution

But what about Covid? We are living in a global pandemic and we could all see the evidence of PPE pollution around us.

Teaming up with National Geographic and the University of Plymouth our Plastic Free Communities lead one of the largest pollution recording activities ever conducted for scientific research, on pollution from PPE.

Volunteers monitored pollution on the same 100 metre stretch over six months, submitting data via the Marine Debris Tracker. They also surveyed individuals and businesses on how their use of single-use plastic had changed during the pandemic.

The results will be released in a scientific paper next year

Plastic Free Champions: The Resurgence

Businesses are one of the biggest contributors to plastic reduction in our Plastic Free Communities. They were also one of the worst hit by the pandemic with uncertainty, lockdown and changing restrictions.

As the UK got used to living with the new normal our communities were keen to see how they could support the local high street to continue its plastic free journey.

Armed with a new business pack, advice, info on Covid and a dose of positivity our leads took part in a summer campaign to check in and re-engage with Plastic Free Champions, new and old.

We saw brilliant refill initiatives, community determination to stay on the plastic free path and as a result an upsurge in business sign ups in the Autumn. By almost a third.

That bodes well for 2022 and is testament to the solid foundations our leads and the SAS Plastic Free Community toolkit have laid.

Policy and Campaign Wins

By taking part in Plastic Free Communities, locals aren’t just acting to tackle plastic pollution where they live. They have a hotline to government and policy via wider SAS campaigns, and can influence change nationally.

2021 was a huge campaigning year, and again the collective voice of our Plastic Free Communities was loud and clear.

They rolled out the Ocean and Climate Emergency petition, they lobbied MPs on water quality and took part in COP26 actions around the UK. They contributed to surveys and citizen science and helped create a record-breaking paddle out protest, as the G7 hit Cornwall. People power was in full force, with our communities driving involvement in their own local areas

And it works. 2021 saw an amended Environment Bill passed, the extension of the carrier bag charge and also moves towards a new ban on more single use items.

What next for Plastic Free Communities?

To round up the year we took to the airwaves … live streaming from SAS HQ over two days, to showcase the impact of the movement so far and share insight from flagship communities.

‘PFC Live’ was the springboard to 2022 and we are starting with the release of the PFC Impact Report. It’ll not only show us the difference the campaign has made in communities and on plastic reduction – it’ll also give us some great learnings.

So let’s raise a glass to another year of collaborative, community led action on single use plastic!