Environmentalists armed with bin liners and litter pickers will descend on Peckham this Saturday (May 21) to raise awareness of their mission to end single-use plastic.
Founded in 2018, Plastic Free Peckham is a community-led group that helps businesses and schools use plastic more sustainably.
Founder, and life-long South Londoner Laura Ford said: “Plastic is an extraordinary material so why are we using it once and then throwing it away?”
“We’ve become desensitised to plastic because it’s everywhere. It’s impossible to do a supermarket shop without buying reams and reams of it.”
“The litter picks make people a bit more aware of the plastic they use.”
The Peckham mum, who works as a sustainability consultant, set the group up as part of Surfers against Sewage’s ‘Plastic Free Communities’ initiative.
The scheme aims to reduce plastic waste by engaging with local businesses and drawing up bespoke sustainability plans that are environmentally friendly and cost-effective.
The community litter-picks, which have previously been attended by as many as 60 people, raise awareness of the cause.
The mission of one 79-year-old Californian woman to breathe life into Peckham Rye’s American garden
On Saturday, replete with gloves and bin liners, provided free by Plastic Free Peckham, volunteers will spruce up the area around Lyndhurst Way – a flytipping hotspot.
They have previously dejunked Holly Grove Shrubbery behind Peckham McDonalds, Peckham Rye, Burgess Park and even nature reserves.
They will meet at Gosnells Mead Garden at 2pm, a bar run by mead makers who will join them on the litter pick.
Employees from Gosnell’s Mead Garden intend to plant sunflowers around Peckham to help sustain the local bee population, especially important given mead is made with honey.
Once the rubbish is gathered, they will sort through it, with Laura teaching volunteers which plastics are recyclable.
Data about the rubbish found is then sent to parent group Surfers Against Sewage, who will use that data to inform their policy initiatives.
Surfers Against Sewage are a marine conservation charity that lobbies the government to enact environmentally-friendly legislation.
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, plastic makes up 80% of all marine debris found.
In March 2022, scientists confirmed they had found microplastics in human blood for the first time.
Peckham Free Plastic: https://www.plasticfreepeckham.org/