How businesses should start small in creating a sustainable future with Amy Meek, Kids Against Plastic founder
11/28/2021
Businesses play a hugely important role in moving forward in a sustainable future. I think for a start, businesses need to stop greenwashing. Just try and put that money and energy into real action, instead of just misleading consumers. I think many businesses will or should at least know what they need to be doing to be more sustainable through their products or services. But I do think what's often overlooked is the behind-the-scenes work too, so just helping employees to be more sustainable with the plastics that they use and buy at work or making the office carbon neutral. Of course, this needs to come alongside product sustainability, but often, working behind the scenes is an easier place to start and is sometimes lagging behind the action that's been taken with regards to the front-facing product. Often, starting behind the scenes and just starting, actually, is hugely better than doing nothing at all.
What actions can people be doing in their work and at their homes to reduce their plastic consumption?
I think one thing that we always try and stress is just try and start small. Don't try and do everything all at once and, for example, go completely plastic free as your first step, because it's often so expensive. It's really demoralising when you can't achieve it, and so just try and smart small in your daily life and be more what we call plastic clever, so it's part of that we encourage people to look at the top four single-use items that they're using in their everyday life and start reducing them. They're often items like plastic bottles, plastic bags, that can be replaced really easily with reusable items, and yet these items are in the top 10 of ocean plastic pollutants, outranking items like fishing line, often, as well. So really just trying to think about the things you can easily do in your daily life to start making a difference instead of trying to do it all at once and getting really overwhelmed.
How can we reduce carbon emissions in our everyday lives?
I think it comes down to a similar thing. As a family, we're trying to become net zero as much as possible by the end of this year, and that's been a real challenge for us despite the amount of effort that we've committed to it. Obviously, we understand that it's not something that everyone can do. We're really dedicating a lot of time and energy to this, and so don't think that you have to do it all at once to be sustainable. I think we're just trying to encourage - we're doing it one step at a time, and we're encouraging other people to do it one step at a time.
So whether that's walking or cycling to work for a day, a week, or whether it's cutting down your meat consumption, these might seem like really small changes in the grand scheme of climate change and the climate crisis, but they are really important. They do add up, and ultimately, the action that comes from companies and governments is going to feed into our daily lives, and if we start getting ahead of the curve and taking action now, then it will really help in combating this issue in the future.
How can people take part and get involved with the work that you're doing?
Well, we've got quite a few different ways for people to get involved, and we would obviously love anyone to get involved with our charity. We have our Plastic Clever scheme, which we've adapted for businesses, cafes, festivals, councils, in particular, schools around the UK, so if you wanted to help your local school or your local business become more plastic clever, then we've got all the resources and the support that you need to do that.
