There are amazing campaigns, initiatives and charities you can join. Anything from creating plastic-free communities in your area, lobbying your local council, taking part in beach clean ups, signing petitions, spreading the word and making donations. Choose something you can manage and fully support and you will be making a difference straight away.
Plastic-Free Communities
The charity Surfers Against Sewage in the UK are creating the Plastic Free Community network to free where we live from single-use. Wherever you live, whether you’re on shore or inland, urban or rural, high-tide or high-rise, they’re uniting communities in the fight against single-use plastics. It’s not about removing all plastic from our lives. It’s about kicking our addiction to avoidable single-use plastic, and changing the system that produces it. Join them and over 400 communities that have already registered and let’s free where we live from single-use, one plastic bottle at a time!
Greenpeace Plastic Pledge
Take the plastics pledge:A truckload of plastic enters our oceans every single minute – killing marine life and threatening precious ecosystems. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Greenpeace are calling on big corporations to cut down on plastic, and for governments to take action to tackle the problem. Will you join the fight against plastic pollution?
Marine Conservation Society, UK
There are many different ways in which you can get involved with the work of the MCSUK and make a positive difference to your seas, beaches and marine wildlife. Check out the options here.
The Plastic Challenge
We use single-use plastics for just about everything, from cleaning our teeth (dental floss, interdental sticks and, every 6 months or so, our toothbrushes) and showering, to buying and storing our food and other products. It is durable and lightweight, but it’s these properties that allow it to persist in the environment for hundreds to thousands of years. The Plastic Challenge isn’t all about living completely plastic-free – in this day and age that would be pretty near impossible. We hope Plastic Challengers will try to reduce their plastic footprint in all sorts of ways.
Plastic Free July
Plastic Free July
aims to raise awareness of the problems and amount of single-use disposable plastic in our lives and challenges people to do something about it. The challenge is quite simple…attempt to refuse single-use plastic during July. You can sign up for a day, a week or the whole month to: try avoiding the plastics that seem to fill your recycling bin, targeting the takeaway items that could end up in the ocean, going completely plastic free (finding alternatives to everything). Alone we are a drop, together an ocean! Sign up yourself, your business, group or school. During July they will send out a weekly email with tips and ideas to help you on your journey. There are also plenty of ideas here in the meantime.
#PassOnPlastic – Sky Ocean Rescue
Launched on 24th January 2017, Sky Ocean Rescue aims to shine a spotlight on the issues affecting ocean health, find innovative solutions to the problem of ocean plastics, and inspire people to make small everyday changes that collectively make a huge difference. Join in here.
Plastic-Free Schools
Plastic Free Schools is a change making, rule breaking pupil led education programme. This ground-breaking programme equips and empowers young activists with the tools to create positive, lasting environmental change. Created to hit key curriculum targets from KS1 – KS3, our five ‘Campaign Objectives Cards’ guide students through the plastic free schools process in an easy to understand, purposeful and fun way!
Register your school TODAY!
City to Sea Campaigns
Help Stop Plastic Pollution at Source! City to Sea are a non-profit organisation running campaigns to prevent marine plastic pollution at source. By engaging communities, working with retailers and lobbying manufacturers and government they’re reversing the trend for disposable items in order to safeguard our seas for the future. Their vision is for the world’s waterways and coastlines to be strewn with sticks, sand and seaweed … not plastic! ♥ Read more about City to Sea and how to get involved.
The Last Plastic Straw Campaign
The Last Plastic Straw is a movement to eliminate single use plastic at the source and a project of Plastic Pollution Coalition. The Last Plastic Straw strives to educate the public about the absurdity of single use plastic, its effects on our health, our environment, and our oceans. Join us in a global movement to eliminate plastic drinking straws from our landfills, our streams, our oceans, and our beaches. Simply request “no straw” at bars & restaurants and share your commitment with others. Encourage your favourite restaurant or bar to only provide straws on request from the customer and to use reusable or naturally compostable options to the plastic straw.
Great British Beach Clean
The UK’s biggest beach clean and survey. Become a Beachwatch Organiser – you can take part in events or organise one of your own. Look after your local beach – organise a Beachwatch beach clean and survey! There are over 900 passionate organisers all around the UK. Organising a Beachwatch beach clean is easy and they’ve got loads of resources to help you.
Take the 4Rs pledge
The Plastic Pollution Coalition mission is to stop plastic pollution and its toxic impact on humans, animals, and the environment. Founded in 2009, they aim to empower more people and organizations to take action to stop plastic pollution and to live plastic-free. Take the 4Rs pledge:
- REFUSE disposable plastic whenever and wherever possible. Choose items that are not packaged in plastic, and carry your own bags, containers and utensils. Say ‘no straw, please.’
- REUSE durable, non-toxic straws, utensils, to-go containers, bottles, bags, and other everyday items. Choose glass, paper, stainless steel, wood, ceramic and bamboo over plastic.
- REDUCE your plastic footprint. Cut down on your consumption of goods that contain excessive plastic packaging and parts. If it will leave behind plastic trash, don’t buy it.
- RECYCLE what you can’t refuse, reduce or reuse. Pay attention to the entire life cycle of items you bring into your life, from source to manufacturing to distribution to disposal.
Two week no-plastic pledge
Plastic Paradise produced a multi award winning documentary in 2013. “Shifting our behavior can start with you! Every day we vote with our wallets and the choices we make in how we live. It may take a bit of getting used to, which is why we say to start small. Take our 2 week pledge to become aware of just how much single-use plastic surrounds us on a daily basis. Ideally you will extend this pledge beyond two weeks, but It all starts with baby steps and progress toward changes.”
Take the two week no-plastic pledge
The Story of Stuff Project
We have a problem with Stuff: we have too much of it, too much of it is toxic and we don’t share it very well. But that’s not the way things have to be. That’s the challenge our founder Annie Leonard unpacked in her groundbreaking 2007 online documentary, The Story of Stuff, which unleashed a torrent of pent-up demand for honest conversation about our consumption-crazed culture. In the eight years since we released that first film, our nine award-winning animated movies have garnered more than 50 million online views around the world and encouraged viewers to support hundreds of environmental projects and campaigns with their time, energy and money. Today, our San Francisco Bay Area-based team inspires and encourages the civic engagement of the more than one million members of our global Community. We invite you to be inspired by and share our movies, participate in our study programs, and take part in campaigns on the environmental and social issues you care about. Join us!
Read more about the Story of Stuff Project