This is a rubbish campaign!

Catherine Masterman reports on the launch of Tearfund’s new campaign.

“This is a Rubbish Campaign”, I was privileged to chant, holding a “P” on a stick in the cold next to Parliament last Wednesday morning. Despite the irony, it’s clearly not a rubbish strapline, given that Tearfund are reusing the name from their last focus on this issue in 2019.

As the campaign says: “We’re facing mountains of plastic pollution. Two billion people have no safe way to dispose of rubbish, and it’s people in poverty who are suffering the worst impacts of this rubbish problem. They are forced to live and work among piles of waste, which is making them sick, releasing toxic fumes, flooding communities and causing up to a million deaths each year.” You can sign the petition here.

Tearfund are unique in focusing on the impact of the waste pickers and have done great work in helping the major companies have a better understanding of that impact. This wave of the campaign is focused on negotiations for a Global Plastic Treaty. They were pleased that two MPs attended the launch, two others wrote about it on social media as well as a Bishop and celebrity chef. It was exciting to know that the campaign was being launched in several other countries, including Brazil, Bolivia and Zambia.  

The resources that go with the campaign are on the website and include material for churches and schools, including a paragraph from me, based on the ideas in www.grainofsand.blog  and this photo with the stat: 5 minutes for a 5-year old to make: 5 days on the desk; 500 years to decompose in landfill.

I’ll be writing more on this in the coming months and will be keen to get inputs from the Joy In Enough community as I know you share my passion that single use plastic has no place in children’s craft.

Please do consider signing the petition and using the resources in your churches. For more on the launch, see a video here of everything else we were up to.