Case study, Community Case Studies, Impact, Uncategorised Posted — 14 March 2024
Meet Our Community Leads: Nikki and Jenny
Achieving the SAS Plastic Free Communities Award takes a network of people working together to raise awareness and encourage plastic reduction locally. Collaboration forms every part of the five-step toolkit that our communities work on. Jenny and Nikki’s partnership shows that together we can make some pretty big changes locally. Their team had a lot to contend with to start their local campaign, but have shown incredible resilience…and have had a lot of fun doing it too. Which always helps!
It was summer 2019, Jenny and a group of locals got together in Thatcham, fed up of the plastic pollution crisis and met in a local pub ready to take action. But plans were put on hold as the global pandemic unfolded. In Autumn 2020, Jenny was faced with re-starting the campaign amongst cultural return to single-use plastic, thanks to Covid. But knowing the positive difference she wanted to make, she set about finding help.
Jenny reached out to a local waste reducing social page, and Nikki stepped to lead and coordinate the group. Seeing how they could use their existing skills, Nikki and Jenny started to take action in their communities together.
I thought it was an excellent opportunity to deploy my Project Management skills and promote an area I believe passionately in – helping the environment. For me, the main motivator is the impact that discarded plastics have on our wildlife. The images of plastic in birds’ stomachs and around seal’s necks are truly disturbing. I believe the only way you can influence is at a local level. Reducing the single use plastic demand locally will reduce the impact on our oceans.
Nikki, Co-lead for Plastic Free Newbury and Thatcham
Their group meet twice a month at one of their local cafes, and enjoy getting together and having a coffee to plan the campaign. Jenny also explains it’s been amazing to watch the local movement grow, such as businesses getting involved and joining their group.
One of our Plastic Free Business Champions, the Newbury Corn exchange, are spreading the message and leading plastic reduction, saving 1000s of pieces of single use plastic a year. As well as organising clothes swaps, reusable wine glasses, they ran a sustainability fair and joined our steering group – an amazing Plastic Free Champion. At the last count, all our champions remove over 100,000 pieces of single use plastic from the environment each year! That’s pretty incredible.
Jenny , Co-lead for Plastic Free Newbury and Thatcham
Another big part of the SAS Plastic Free Communities award is working with the local council to pass a motion of support, to help drive plastic reduction and make long lasting changes. Jenny now sits on the environmental working party for Thatcham Town Council, working with them to work plastic reduction into long term plans. Something she previously felt she didn’t have the confidence to do. This year she worked with the council to adopt a Plastic Free Event Charter, a massive step to making local events free of single-use plastics.
This year Jenny received a Civic Environmental Award from Thatcham Town Council in recognition of her work with the council.
As the campaign starts to gain more momentum, Nikki and Jenny are finding that spreading the message is easier. Awareness has increased, and people and opportunities are now coming to them, quite often by surprise.
We are starting to get some real momentum, last year we were speaking to a lot of people and trying to spread the message, this year it is the other way around! We are being approached by networking groups and even the County Council to come and talk. I was even offered the opportunity to have a band play for a plastic free charity concert, which took me completely by surprise!
Nikki, Co-lead for Plastic Free Newbury and Thatcham
Jenny and Nikki both found one of the biggest learning curves they had as a group, is that too many ideas can be a barrier. They found it really important to focus and prioritise ideas to make the most impact. Which is the beauty of the five-step plan from SAS. Those five goals for the initial award go on to form the five main pillars of work for sustainable and achievable change in our communities. Our longest running and most successful communities are those that focus action on those five pillars and use them to enable local projects.
For Nikki and Jenny that looks like plans to work more with schools and spread the plastic free message even further as awarded communities. Their advice for anyone wanting to start their own Plastic Free Community?
“Just do it! It’s well worth it and great fun too. Start small, and reach out to other communities, we’re all here to help”
Want to join Jenny and Nikki in the UKs biggest Plastic Free Movement?
Find out more about how you can lead your community to take action on plastic locally
Latest News & Events
Other ways to support
Plastic Free Schools
We urgently need your help to fight plastic pollution, protect the ocean
and save wildlife.
Join Surfers Against Sewage
The more members we have, the louder our voice becomes and the more attention we can demand from government and industry.
Fundraise for us
When you sign up to a challenge event or host an event in aid of SAS, not only will YOU be saving our oceans, but you also get to have lots of fun while doing it!