Plastics campaign update – Jodie Etheridge
It has been a busy few months. On 10th September we posted our petition to Michael Gove for a Plastic Bottle Deposit Return Scheme. It was a very successful petition and we gained nearly 600 signatures. Campaigners gathered by a local post box and took photos to mark the send-off. We are very proud of the hard work that went into building support for our petition. A big thank you everyone who made this possible.
After the petition hand-in we began to think about moving the campaign into its next stage, one which would have a wider focus on plastic waste rather than just on a Deposit Return Scheme. To mark the campaign moving into a new, exciting phase on 13th September we showed the film ‘A Plastic Ocean’, a documentary about the problem of plastic waste. We teamed up with Birmingham Cooperative Film Society to screen the film in our spacious new meeting room at the Warehouse. The screening was very successful and well-attended by supporters, campaigners and representatives from other environmental groups. We had a successful follow-up discussion night in October to give people a chance to discuss their thoughts on the film and some key themes that arose from it.
In terms of the next phase of the campaign, at the time of writing this article we have been campaigning on how to waste less plastic at Christmas time and still have fun! In December we had a fun Christmas Crafternoon. This was a very successful afternoon of fun and creative plastic-free crafts. We hope to have other craft events in the future. Our focus for 2019 will move towards supporting the call for a plastic-free Commonwealth Games which are coming to Birmingham in 2022. At the time of writing, we have done some initial research into this. We have also decided that we intend to focus our campaign on plastic used in food and drinks containers at the games. We have been in communication with the organising committee about this focus and we look forward to building on this communication soon.
As always, a massive thank you to everyone who has been working hard on the plastics campaign. Onwards and upwards!
If you would like to join our plastic campaign team then please get in touch – info@birminghamfoe.org.uk
