I’m Jodie, one of the leaders on our campaign for a national ‘Deposit Return Scheme’ on plastic bottles. This campaign has been running since January.
It’s been an exciting and busy time over the past few months and there’s lots more excitement ahead! We have been building up support for the campaign from Councillors and MP’s and we have had some successful meetings with Councillors including John Cotton and Liz Clements as well as Andrew Mitchell MP. They were supportive of us and have been able to put us in touch with some useful contacts in the Council. We really appreciate them taking the time to communicate and meet with us.
At the time of writing, we are planning the hand in of our petition to Michael Gove to ask for a national Deposit Return Scheme. We will be going to a local post box for a photo stunt to mark this important occasion! We will also be hosting the Birmingham Co-operative Film Society’s showing of the film ‘A Plastic Ocean’; an adventure documentary about plastic pollution. We are planning to hold a plastic free bring and share buffet before the film starts and there will be a couple of speakers after the film including ‘Plastic Free Moseley’.
The campaign will then be moving forward to the next stage. We are going to keep a focus on plastic bottles but widen the campaign to include other types of plastic waste. We have been looking into campaigning for a plastic-free Commonwealth Games and we have also discussed the idea of campaigning for the small plastic bags given in supermarkets for fruit and vegetables to be replaced with recycled paper bags.
Look out for an update on the petition hand in and the film showing in the next newsletter and also for news of the next stage of the campaign. As always, a massive thank you to everyone who has been working hard on this campaign. If you would like to get involved please email jodie@birminghamfoe.org.uk
Onwards and upwards!
