About

Plastic Free Swindon is an organisation to help end plastic pollution. It was launched for Plastic Free July 2018. As part of Friends of the Earth, we form part of the global Break Free From Plastic movement (vision, mission and principles here). The organisation is made up of volunteers and is non-politically affiliated.

Aims

We support:

• Zero waste systems.
• Effective legislation to eliminate plastic pollution such as The Plastic Pollution Bill.
• Effective legislation on synthetic chemicals.
• Local, independent and organic / natural. These aspects reduce the need for plastic and are beneficial in many other respects. For example, reduced food miles.
• Economic equality: Economic inequality is core to social and enviromental crises, including plastic pollution.
• Sharing resources.

We do not support:

• A system that focuses on plastic 'recycling'. It doesn't work! See our plastic recycling article and the recycling category in the library for info.
• "Chemical recycling". It is polluting, energy intensive, inefficient, a barrier to the development of zero waste systems, contains polluting contaminates, and hence makes a poor quality fuel.
• Waste incineration / waste-to-energy. It lowers recycling rates, pollutes the environment with noxious substances, contributes to climate change, is a barrier to the development of zero waste systems, and is unpleasant to live near.
• The Environment Act 2021. It doesn't provide effective legislation to reduce plastic pollution.
• The global food system, core to many social and environmental ills, including plastic pollution.

See the library for clarification of these points.

We endeavour to reach our goals through:

• Education.
• Hosting events.
• Facilitation.
• Support and co-operation.
• Understanding problems and implementing solutions
• Engaging with the public, schools and colleges, businesses, MPs / government, borough and parish councils, and others.
• Liasing with local media.
• Working with local, national and international groups.
• Extensive research.

See the 'activities' section for how we've been working to achieve our aims.

Website info

Personal information

We collect no information from you unless you communicate with us or for activities. Information is used for the campaign only and will remain with Plastic Free Swindon organisers.

• If you write to us, we will use the information that you provide for communication and the emails will be stored as a record of those communications.
• For specific activities, we will state what information is used for.

Please contact us if with any queries.

Web hosting

This website was created from the ground up to be efficient, keeping file sizes and load low. It is hosted by a small, independent company called Faelix, who are environmentally and socially responsible. For example, they own UK-based servers powered by renewable energy and support free / libre software, hosting an instance of Jitsi and present on Mastodon.

Copyright © / copyleft ©

Credits

The images in the the links section are copyright of the respective organisations and used under Fair Usage terms.

The following are linked from media:

1. No license.
2. "Bottle tops" has a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication..
3. "Covid-19" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
4. "Handcuffed" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
5. "Swindon ward map" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
6. "TTIP banner" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
7. "Wikileaks logo" has a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
8. "EU / Brexit flag" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
9. "Coca Cola - Mexican death sentence" © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons. It has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
10. "Plastic recycling symbol" has a Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
11. "Fediverse" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
12. "Feral pigeon entangled in a thread" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
13. "Lower ground floor, CEX, the Headrow, Leeds" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
14. "Buddhist dharma wheel" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
15. "Starfield simulation" has a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication..
16. "Monopoly game" has a Pixabay license.
17. "Irish famine" has a Pixabay license.
18. "Career ladder" has a Pixabay license.
19. "Hand holding Earth" has a Pixabay license.
20. "Plastic Recycling Code 02 PE-HD" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
21. "FSC chain of custody" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
22. "Glass recycling logo" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license and has been altered to have white text instead of black.
23. "Plastic bottle mountain" copyright of Deutsche Welle TV. Used under fair usage terms.
24. © 2023 Oxfam. Used under fair usage terms.
25. "Westminster palace" has been remixed and has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
26. "You won't find us on Facebook" has been remixed and has a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license
27. "Plastic ban" has been remixed and has a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
28. "Earthbuilding2" has a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
29. © 2023 Peter Cowdy
30. © 2023 Martin Travers
31. © 2023 The Story of Plastic. Used under fair usage terms.
32. © 2023 Old Town Festival.
33. © 2023 Refill.
34. Image created by Swindon artist Willo the Wisp. It has no license.
35. © 2023 Swindon 105.5.
36. © 2021 Center for International Environmental Law. Used under fair usage terms.
37. Future Friendly logo has no license.
38. Acorn (community union) logo has no license.
39. Stop the Keypoint Incinerator Project (SKIP) logo has no license.
40. © 2018 Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. Used under fair usage terms.
41. Unknown license. Used under fair usage terms.
42. © 2023 Greenpeace. Used under fair usage terms.
43. Break Free From Plastic video used under Fair Usage terms.
44. © 2023 South Swindon Parish Council
45. © 2023 A Good Thing
46. Free resources courtesy of Adbusters.

Fonts

• The font used for navigation and on the timeline is called Pressuru, which has no license (1 | 2).
• The main headings font is called Grobold, which has no license.
• The font used for navigation and on the timeline is called Fredericka The Great, which has an SIL Open Font license.
• The font used for the Ghandi quote in the take action section is called Alex Brush, which has an SIL Open Font license.

© 2020 to 2023 Plastic Free Swindon ©
See the copyright / copyleft license section for full details.

Timeline