We know children feel very strongly about this issue and are genuinely upset by images they see of dead whales’ stomachs full of plastic, strangled turtles and seabirds dying in plastic bags. Not enough is being done to prevent this environmental disaster and we feel that children should have a voice in the future they will inherit.
Enabling children's environmental voices to be heard... PLAY!
Cleaning up beaches, oceans and rivers after other people is not good enough and comes at a huge cost to us all. Recycling alone is not the answer with so many different types of plastic out there. Consumers are often confused. We have already paid for the plastic that wraps or constitutes our goods. We pay for it all over again to be recycled, sent to Landfill or incineration. The onus is always on us, the consumer. And those of us aware enough to try to live plastic-free find it almost impossible, as the alternatives to plastic are expensive or don’t yet exist. We are literally drowning in the stuff. It is in almost everything, including our minds as part of everyday reality, and our bodies, as it finds its way into our food-chains.
We Are The Voice is a Zero-Waste campaign, advocating TQM (Total Quality Management Control). TQM originates in Japan and is based on the idea that if there is a fault at the end of a production line, this is considered a whole system failure. We want to apply this to waste: if it exists at the end of a production line, the whole system has failed. Our aim is to lobby manufacturers to think smart and be responsible for what they produce. We want them to design waste out of their product streams. There are many ways in which they can do this. Waste disposal is currently out-dated, cumbersome, and much too expensive. It must become simple enough for a two-year old child to execute!
We Are the Voice aims to send 1,000,000 virtual postcards to the producers of children's plastic goods. We will do this by launching our national plastic awareness workshops in schools across the country, specifically petitioning the makers of children’s goods to ditch unnecessary plastic wrapping; stop using single-use plastic; make children’s toys from safe materials that are recyclable (must be PVC free) and they must take toys back at their end-of-use to recycle and remake into new products.
The focus of our aim is to give children a voice in driving change and innovation - something they want for their future and their planet. To launch our campaign, we have recorded a song, We Are the Voice, a children’s cry to save Mother Earth. To hear the song, follow the link HERE. The song could become synonymous with the whole plastic campaign and, sung by children, will aim to win hearts and minds, make more of a positive impact on those responsible for implementing change, and carry the message of our overall campaign into schools.