Hundreds of people from Penzance and beyond banded together at the weekend to stand up against plastic pollution. A perfect example of people-led action, with a clear call to decision makers and polluters. And follow up actions we can all take in all aspects of our lives to make a difference on every level.
Didn’t make it, but wondering what it was all about? Read on…
Penzance’s human chain
Part of The People vs Plastic campaign by UK charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), Saturday’s human chain saw 500 people joining together to protect the ocean from plastic pollution along Penzance Promenade.
The aim? To take a stand against the plastic polluters and call for immediate action to turn the tide on plastic. To end the consumer blame game, and make the profiteering polluters accountable.
If you haven’t heard of it yet, The People vs Plastic is SAS’s biggest plastic pollution campaign yet. Our event in Penzance, led by SAS’s first ever Plastic Free Community, Plastic Free Penzance, was the charity’s biggest protest as part of a national day of action.
Stretching across the promenade, our protesters shouted chants calling for an end to plastic pollution, and were then invited to join a follow-on campaign to demand immediate action with a Global Plastics Treaty – by signing a petition by SAS. You can sign it, too – right here!
We’ll be sharing more on this campaign, soon.
What happens next
Impactful change doesn’t happen from nothing. It starts at home, with us. But the next step is challenging the people in power to do their bit.
Plastic Free PZ has been working for eight years now to reduce single-use plastic, and we’ve seen some massive successes. But, ultimately, we need producers and brands to stop producing single-use plastic and pumping it out onto communities.
We need decision-makers to enable a system that stops production of single-use plastic and creates a circular economy. So, now that we’ve shown the strength of feeling in the community, we’re going to be taking that community voice to power.
Rachel Yates, from Plastic Free Penzance, says: “It was amazing to see so many people from the Penzance community come out and show the strength of feeling there is around single-use plastic in the town.
“We will be represented at the Global Plastics Treaty through Surfers Against Sewage, and we will be continuing to campaign to call on the UK decision-makers to stand up for a cleaner future.”
Part of this action is inviting our communities to sign the petition (so, don’t forget to do it before you go!).
Can I find out more about People vs Plastic?
SAS’s People vs Plastic campaign is calling on the UK Government to step up and sort this mess out. The next step in that is an ambitious Global Plastic Treaty.
We are demanding full commitment to changing the law to bring about a circular economy and hold polluters to account – without any more delay. You can read more about People vs Plastic here.
There will be a host of actions and events we can take part in as a community for the rest of the year and beyond. Sign up to our newsletter to get all the info each month.
Take action at home
We can all take action right now. Head to www.plasticfreepz.co.uk to get more info on how you can reduce your plastic impact through individual actions, shopping with the towns hundreds of Plastic Free Champions and supporting reuse and refill projects.
To follow Plastic Free Penzance on socials, head to Instagram or Facebook, where you can find day-to-day tips on how to reduce plastic use, as well as how we are doing it within our own community. You can also find our regular updates on the Sustainable PZ pages, too (head here for Instagram and Facebook)
We’ll be sharing links to local and national campaigns as always, where you can supersize your actions to bring about national change.
Thanks again for the amazing support for the Plastic Free Penzance Human Chain on Sat 19th July. We showed that we are still here. We still don’t want single use plastic. And we are still actively working to get rid of it in our community.
Images: Mike Newtown
