A Guide to Plastic Free Communities
Take a sneak peek at some of our tips before the launch of our Plastic-free Community Toolkit, a guide for communities, groups, and organisations to reduce single-use plastic in their local area.
The completed toolkit will be launched later this month, where you can find more in depth details on how to run your own plus our learnings from our 3 year long project, 'Plastic Free Poplar'. Keep an eye out for more updates!
Developed from our 'Plastic-free Poplar' project, we wanted to inspire and enable others to do the same in their communities. Scroll down to learn more about the project or head to https://justfact.co.uk/project/plastic-free-poplar/
Tips for plastic reduction in our communities
Come together as a group: schedule regular meetings as a space to gather ideas, identify common interests, and facilitate the sharing of existing skills that reduce plastic use.
Make conversation with local business owners to learn about existing practices in your community that help reduce plastic waste.
Head to the streets and set up a table using interactive and creative methods to gather information about the extent of plastic consumption in your area. Invite families to take part by offering sustainable, child-friendly activities.
Expand your local network to connect with more of the community. Whether it's the council, local schools, libraries, or existing groups, the more people you reach, the more your campaign will grow.
Create an art installation or host an event to raise awareness and explain the plastic problem.
Form a plan of action, hold brainstorming sessions, gather insights from the community to develop a proposal, and encourage residents to vote on the changes they most want to see in the area. We used bottle tops as tokens for people to record votes at community events.
Don't forget to celebrate your wins! Change can be slow, so to maintain high morale, we recommend a collaborative cooking session followed by a plastic-free picnic!
What is Plastic Free Poplar?
Plastic Free Poplar was a community project completed in 2023 with the aim to:
Encourage local residents’ to take action to reduce single use plastic waste in the Poplar area.
Further develop residents’ resourcefulness and knowledge on how to reduce their plastic waste.
Foster community connection through making, learning and crafting together, whilst caring for their local environment.
We worked with schools, local businesses, community organisations and residents, reaching over 1000 people. Using community-led and co-production approaches, the project included practical workshops, art installations, community meet-ups and litter picks.
Plastic Free Poplar is part of Just FACT (a JUST Food and Climate Transition), a network of people and projects in Tower Hamlets, coming together to create the building blocks for an alternative food system that is democratic, environmentally sustainable, and people-driven.
See https://justfact.co.uk/ for more information.
