Urgent appeal for oil-based plastic reduction in prisons: Out of sight is not out of mind
The Issue
To Jo Farrar and the HMPPS Executive Agency Team
We are contacting you following the receipt of an observation made by a resident prisoner in HMP Berwyn. The complaint concerns the continuing rampant consumption of single-use plastic in food preparation and storage. This is despite the Ministry of Justice pledge to meet the target Single Use Plastic Policy of October 2018 when the Government committed to remove all single-use plastic from central government estate offices. This was stated in the Sustainable Operations Strategy.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rehabilitative-culture-in-prisons
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8515/
We are clearly in a very challenging time given the spread of COVID-19. However, as we are sure you are aware, this pandemic isn’t the only immediate threat to our society. We are in this moment, and for many decades’ past, living through a mass extinction event. The immediate reduction of pollution is imperative to ensure the preservation of many life forms on the planet, which in turn, play a role in the survival of our species.
We are now in 2020, the very year that vowed to drastically change sustainability in the UK for the better and for good. Now is the time for appropriate measures to be taken. Action has to be taken to lower pollution levels, and the government needs to put in the infrastructure for institutions and businesses to make that transition immediately.
Within the first decade of the 21st century, the world has produced more plastic than in the last 100 years. The UK alone generates 5 million tonnes of plastic. Oil-based plastic is inside our bodies, inside what we eat, the residual chemicals are in our water, and an unfathomable amount remains useless in waste dumps, in our oceans, washed up on the banks of other nations or sold to other countries and burned for energy. This cycle is incomplete, and therefore inadequate. The earth needs us to act now, to prevent any further damage to countless ecosystems, food and water sources.
https://www.ft.com/content/f00869c2-7bdd-11e9-81d2-f785092ab560
The UK has a prisoner population of 80,000. Not only should prisons ban single-use plastic, but recycling and reducing waste should already be actively encouraged in prisons. As rehabilitation centres, coaching prisoners in the importance of recycling of materials certainly plays a role toward integrating inmate’s return into society. We’re sure you agree that when prisoners are released back into society they should feel able to make a contribution to their communities. Here's an article written in 2019 on single use plastic on InsideTime, the national newspaper for prisons: https://insidetime.org/how-wasteful/
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rehabilitative-culture-in-prisons
Concern and care for the environment is surely one of the central characteristics of a responsible citizen. All inmates and officers in HMP service should be supporting the process of replacing non-recyclable plastic packaging. Given the size of the prisoner estate, you have the leverage with your tendering processes to encourage the distribution chain to find alternatives to single use plastics.
Supporting the replacement of non-recyclable plastic packaging in prisons will make a substantial reduction in the nation's carbon footprint. Please see this as your opportunity to be a leader into a sustainable future. What will you be doing now to work toward this simple, yet imperative goal?
We await your reply with interest and concern.
Yours sincerely,
Earth Strike North of the River
190
The Issue
To Jo Farrar and the HMPPS Executive Agency Team
We are contacting you following the receipt of an observation made by a resident prisoner in HMP Berwyn. The complaint concerns the continuing rampant consumption of single-use plastic in food preparation and storage. This is despite the Ministry of Justice pledge to meet the target Single Use Plastic Policy of October 2018 when the Government committed to remove all single-use plastic from central government estate offices. This was stated in the Sustainable Operations Strategy.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rehabilitative-culture-in-prisons
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8515/
We are clearly in a very challenging time given the spread of COVID-19. However, as we are sure you are aware, this pandemic isn’t the only immediate threat to our society. We are in this moment, and for many decades’ past, living through a mass extinction event. The immediate reduction of pollution is imperative to ensure the preservation of many life forms on the planet, which in turn, play a role in the survival of our species.
We are now in 2020, the very year that vowed to drastically change sustainability in the UK for the better and for good. Now is the time for appropriate measures to be taken. Action has to be taken to lower pollution levels, and the government needs to put in the infrastructure for institutions and businesses to make that transition immediately.
Within the first decade of the 21st century, the world has produced more plastic than in the last 100 years. The UK alone generates 5 million tonnes of plastic. Oil-based plastic is inside our bodies, inside what we eat, the residual chemicals are in our water, and an unfathomable amount remains useless in waste dumps, in our oceans, washed up on the banks of other nations or sold to other countries and burned for energy. This cycle is incomplete, and therefore inadequate. The earth needs us to act now, to prevent any further damage to countless ecosystems, food and water sources.
https://www.ft.com/content/f00869c2-7bdd-11e9-81d2-f785092ab560
The UK has a prisoner population of 80,000. Not only should prisons ban single-use plastic, but recycling and reducing waste should already be actively encouraged in prisons. As rehabilitation centres, coaching prisoners in the importance of recycling of materials certainly plays a role toward integrating inmate’s return into society. We’re sure you agree that when prisoners are released back into society they should feel able to make a contribution to their communities. Here's an article written in 2019 on single use plastic on InsideTime, the national newspaper for prisons: https://insidetime.org/how-wasteful/
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rehabilitative-culture-in-prisons
Concern and care for the environment is surely one of the central characteristics of a responsible citizen. All inmates and officers in HMP service should be supporting the process of replacing non-recyclable plastic packaging. Given the size of the prisoner estate, you have the leverage with your tendering processes to encourage the distribution chain to find alternatives to single use plastics.
Supporting the replacement of non-recyclable plastic packaging in prisons will make a substantial reduction in the nation's carbon footprint. Please see this as your opportunity to be a leader into a sustainable future. What will you be doing now to work toward this simple, yet imperative goal?
We await your reply with interest and concern.
Yours sincerely,
Earth Strike North of the River
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on 21 May 2020