Hackney, in the fight against plastic.
This article is for climate change deniers , for those who think that everything is in the hands of governments and large companies. They are wrong, we can do much more than them to change the world: in fact, it is the small personal changes of each individual or family unit that make the difference.
Who else would have thought that Bettina Maidment , a mother of two with a normal life in East London, would turn her neighborhood upside down and she would declare war on plastic . And the best thing... that many anonymous people would join your project Plastic-Free Hackney .
The truth is that when you open your eyes everything changes and nothing seems the same to you anymore. That happened to Bettina in 2017 when she decided end the single-use plastic craze.
The first change she made was in her life and her family's. As she affirms, she has not bought clothes for years, because she has opted for reusing and recycling to the fullest. “Instead of thinking that she needed something that she wanted to buy online, I wanted to have everything more organized and think ahead or question if she really needed it . Honestly, it's very liberating to get away from the consumer way of life!”, she tells Traveler.es.
A year ago the first volunteers began to participate in their project Plastic-Free Hackney , an organization that wants to raise awareness about the problems of the plastics of a single one in the neighborhood, generate alternatives, replant trees and vegetation and organize garbage collection in which all the neighbors participate.
The first thing he learned from this adventure or war, depending on how you look at it, was knowing that changes don't happen overnight. “As much as I would like to see Hackney go plastic-free tonight, I know it's It takes a lot of work to make people in the community aware of who we are and what we are doing; so we go to as many community events as possible to talk about the campaign, attract new volunteers, and talk to people about what we intend to do,” she stresses.
They currently have a group of 5 to 10 volunteers . "We also have over 700 people on our mailing list and events like monthly garbage collections have had around 120 people participate."
But, What is Bettina's day-to-day like? “Today, for example, I have spent the whole morning in a student center with more than 200 tenants, observing how they reduce the waste they produce and recycle correctly. This afternoon we will give an educational presentation to children from 3 to 8 years old on topics related to plastic pollution . I also give talks to companies together with Daniel from **Everyday Plastic**”.
Since 2017, not everything has been bad news because the first green shoots of so much effort are already emerging. “People are much more aware of the problem than they were a couple of years ago. Now there is definitely a will to change. It is they who approach us instead of the other way around! ”.