Taking the Reuse manifesto to parliament

One of the great things about stepping up as CEO of mighty campaigning organization, City to Sea, is that I’ve been given the opportunity to work across our campaigning and public affairs work. I’m lucky to be building on City to Sea’s proud history of success over the last decade addressing damaging single-use items flowing from our high streets to our oceans. 

It’s been with some trepidation that I have dug deeper into our public affairs strategy, and I was recently very proud, surprised and pretty daunted, to be speaking at a reception at the Houses of Parliament, alongside my brilliant colleagues, with a host MPs and industry leaders! I can’t help but wonder what my old Politics lecturers would think if they could see me now… I reminded myself of that Grade B in A Level Politics and thought ‘I can handle this’, even in the face of the many mind-boggling acronyms of waste policy. 

We have a vision of a refillable and reusable future, a sustainable circular economy moving away from our take, make, waste system and replacing it with refill, reuse, return, repeat. This transition has the benefit of generating clean economic growth – a new industry generating jobs and wealth, without littering our oceans. 
 
Currently, the market is stacked in favor of single-use, it’s the cheap and convenient default option. But our vision can be realized via a clear policy framework that supports the Waste Hierarchy. With a clear and timely legislative framework that promotes reusable packaging we can rebalance our economy and help UK businesses to plan, trade and ultimately compete here, in the EU and globally. 

The recent ban on single-use cutlery and straws prevents some 4.25 billion items of single-use plastic entering the UK’s waste stream every year! So, reducing single-use plastic items and turning to reuse presents a HUGE opportunity to make an impact for the health of our people and our planet.   

On October 23rd, with our pledge cards and reuse manifesto in tow, the City to Sea team arrived at the houses of parliament to host our ‘Step up for reuse parliamentary reception’ to showcase how the UK can lead the transition from single-use to reuse and benefit businesses, consumers, and the planet. 

We united policy makers, NGOs, and industry leaders, to highlight 3 policy asks and showcased the practical solutions needed to encourage the behaviours and systems change for reuse future.  

86 percent of the public would like to see less plastic litter and pollution in their local area. 83% of people are concerned about the amount of plastic in their everyday shop. 76% of people think the government should make tackling plastic pollution a priority –  hence our focus on engaging MPs with the Reuse Manifesto. 

Joining us at our reception were all the people that need to collaborate to deliver the transition to reuse;  

• Businesses that are already doing the work and delivering viable scalable solutions, like Ocean Bottle who are supporting City to Sea’s advocacy work and growing the market for reuse, and Marks & Spencer who have returnable packaging live in 23 UK stores.   
• Academics providing evidence base and testing the levers of change 
• Local leaders dealing with environmental, social and financial costs of waste 
• Media and journalists bringing our stories to the masses 
• And most importantly, busy MPs representing the interests of constituents all over the country

We’re grateful for people stepping up to pledge their support for tackling plastic pollution and showing their constituents and audiences that they hear their concerns.

We would like to extend our thank you to our amazing community of  influential leaders,  for attending this important milestone and for lending their voices calling to reduce single-use plastics and leading the transition to reuse.  

• Supportive speech from our host Mr Alistair Carmichael MP, and Chair of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
• 3 policy asks outlined in dedicated space, highlighting solutions and impact. 40 MPs engaged and 11 MPs pledged their support with ongoing conversations and follow up briefing
• Over 45+ business leaders, NGOs, Academics and local authorities to amplify Reuse Manifesto at the event and support the message online.
• Reach of #StepUpForReuse – 30,000 in October, 2Million in 2024.
• Polling survey showing people’s readiness for change and event takeaways shared with media, with more than 100k estimated reach.
• Over 70 reuse challenges were shared to guests written by children aged 7-14, to highlight the voice of the youth with policy makers.