Donate

The 2023 review

Wow what a year it’s been. We started 2023 as our sister group Plastic Free Sheffield Central, and we end the year as Sheffield Action on Plastic, on the cusp of rolling out a Reusable Coffee Cup Scheme and Plastic Free Markets! Our Reusable Revolution campaign has made great strides this year and we can’t wait to see what 2024 brings!

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who engaged with Plastic Free Sheffield Central / Sheffield Action on Plastic and helped us to engage with the Sheffield public and raise awareness/make a difference to tackle single-use plastics. THANK YOU to our incredible volunteers for giving up their time to support us. And we also have to praise the fantastic work of Sheffield Litter Pickers who tirelessly go out picking up litter and preventing it from entering our waterways and killing innocent animals.

  • January 2023
    • We learnt that single-use plastic takeaway items, such as plastic cutlery and polystyrene trays were to be banned from October
  • February 2023
    • We had a stall at the University of Sheffield Refreshers Fair talking to students about volunteering opportunities
  • March 2023
    • We received a delivery of our amazing reusable pint cups, kindly purchased for us by LOADHOG, and our reusable wine goblets, kindly purchased for us by Swag Box
  • April 2023
    • We teamed up with Sheffield Sustainability Network for Plastic Game Changer, an event helping businesses to reduce single-use plastics, with the assistance of speaker, Amanda Keetley, who wrote the book
    • It was the first use of our reusable pint and wine cups at Quayside Market and Sharrow Vale Market
  • May 2023
    • We ran our Festival of Debate event, looking back on the work we’d done with pursuing a Reusable Revolution, and we were lucky to be joined by Sarah Greenwood from the University of Sheffield to explain the reasons behind a pursuit of reusables and what the University are doing
    • We had a presence at the Sheffield and District Association of Unitarian and Free Churches’ Climate Day
    • We had a stall at Sheffield Food Festival in the Winter Garden, talking to people about how they can reduce single-use plastics
  • June 2023
    • We built a relationship with Showroom Cinema who agreed to screen a new UK documentary, Plastic Warriors, as part of the national Great Big Green Week. There was over 30 people at the event, and we were delighted to be joined by Rorie Bestwick-Parsons from the University of Sheffield and Chantelle from Hillsborough Refill Hub on a panel discussing the film and the issues it raised. We then went out on a litter pick afterwards
    • We launched Sheffield Action on Plastic – a constituted organisation with a bank account, in order to start making more of an impact locally
  • July 2023
    • We had a stall at Sharrow Festival, talking to people about how they can reduce single-use plastics
  • August 2023
    • We started leafleting takeaway businesses to make them aware of the upcoming single-use plastics ban
  • September 2023
    • We had a stall at Sheffield Cathedral Eco Church Day, talking to people about how they can reduce single-use plastics
    • We attended a Sheffield City Council Waste Committee meeting to ask a question asking the council to create a single-use plastics policy. As a result, they’ve added single-use plastics to their Work Programme, a great result
    • We put out a call for cafes to join a Reusable Coffee Cup Scheme
    • We joined the Make Polluters Pay demo outside Sheffield City Hall, calling on plastic polluters to pay for the plastic they create and the pollution they cause
    • We had a stall at Lush Sheffield, talking to people about how they can reduce single-use plastics, whilst also raising money for our group
    • We continued to talk to takeaway businesses of the upcoming single-use plastics ban and got to speak to BBC Radio Sheffield about our work and the ban
  • October 2023
    • We had a stall at Sheffield Vegan Market, talking to people about how they can reduce single-use plastics
    • Sheffield business, The Soap Loaf Company, ran a Plastic Free Cosmeti Craft workshop for us, teaching people how to make their own deodorant balm, shower steamer and toothpaste
    • We had a party/social to celebrate the single-use plastic ban that came into force in October
    • Our volunteer Rana went to speak to students part of the IVE Scheme about plastics
  • November 2023
    • We were nominated for Best Sustainable Business of the Year at the UnLTD Business Awards, which we were absolutely delighted with, knowing our group was so young
    • We opened applications for our first Plastic Free Market, to be held on Sunday 14th April 2024 at Trafalgar Warehouse. Applications are still open
    • We announced that TravelMaster was the sponsor of our first Plastic Free Market – a huge thank you to them!
    • We had a stall at Sheffield Peace and Craft Fair, talking to people about how they can reduce single-use plastics
    • We had a stall again at Sharrow Vale Market, bringing back our reusable cups, enabling visitors to #choosetoreuse and use a reusable cup for their drink, whilst also talking to the public on how they can reduce single-use plastics
    • We announced a partnership with Delete Cups who will help us to roll out a Reusable Coffee Cup Scheme to Sheffield! This works on a deposit return scheme, where hot drink lovers pay a deposit for their drink, which is then refunded when they bring their cup back to another participating café. Our volunteers started leafleting cafes to sign them up.
    • We were delighted that Sheffield Social Enterprise Network was able to adopt reusable cups for their 2023 conference, Putting People and Planet First – a huge thank you to them!
  • December 2023
    • We had a stall outside Sheffield train station, as part of a wider climate stalls day, talking to the public on how they can reduce single-use plastics
    • We had a presence at the Now We Rise COP28 demonstration that marched through the city centre and had speeches at Devonshire Green and Sheffield City Hall
    • We announced that six Sheffield cafes have signed up for the Sheffield Reusable Coffee Cup Scheme, launching early 2024, which is incredibly exciting!
    • We launched a 2024 Donate Appeal, calling for help to fund the purchase reusable cups to be used instead of disposable cups at events in 2024

Sheffield Action on Plastic

Leave a comment