Petitions
A popular method of trying to combat plastic pollution is to create/sign a petition around the subject.
Almost half of petition requests submitted to the site by the public are rejected before they reach publication stage. While petitions can be shared and can spark further public interest and awareness, the actual petition may not even be acted upon or even viewed/debated by Parliament. However, listening to customer outcry can instigate change within major companies and supermarkets regardless of whether any legislation comes into place.
In 2018 the Department of for Environment, Food And Rural Affairs proposed a waste strategy and as part of this there was a deposit return scheme thought up for the return of plastic bottles. The scheme involved paying a deposit when buying a drink in a plastic bottle and then when the bottle is returned, the deposit is also returned. This initiative encourages people to recycle in order to get their money back. This scheme is already in use in Norway and is highly successful. There were worries that bigger bottles may not be included in the scheme, hence activists carrying this 29ft plastic bottle sculpture made of discarded plastic bottles to Michael Gove to ensure this didn't happen.
Customers shopping at Tesco in Keynsham in Bath shopped as normal and then left all the plastic packaging behind in trollies for the supermarket to deal with. They filled 3 trollies which highlights how unnecessary and wasteful plastic packaging is and how it is not needed. The protest was peaceful but was effective in highlighting the plastic problem.
Tesco has claimed that more than 78% of its packaging is recyclable.
A spokesperson said: "We're absolutely committed to reducing plastic packaging and would be happy to meet with these local campaigners as we develop our plans to make all our packaging fully recyclable or compostable by 2025."
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