The USP of Kids Against Plastic (or KAP for short) is that it was set up by kids. Kids Against Plastic was set up 2016 after sisters, Amy and Ella, had been learning about UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and discovering the issue of plastic pollution. Amy and Ella want to raise awareness of the issue that single-use plastic is having on the planet and encourage young people, who are passionate about the environment, to take action and make a difference.
Since starting KAP, Amy and Ella have worked hard to inspire young children, politicians, business leaders and academics, and to motivate individuals, families, schools, cafes and businesses to become more discerning users of single-use plastic – or become ‘Plastic Clever’.
They have created a Plastic Clever scheme that has been adopted in over 2000 schools and over 50 cafes, businesses and festivals across the UK.
The girls have talked at various events internationally (including giving their own TEDx talks in 2018 and 2021 and speaking at the Young Activists Summit in the UN Geneva in 2019) as well as schools around the UK.
Amy and Ella were the first ever recipients of the Pride of Britain Green Champions award in 2021, were recognised with BEM honours in the 2022 New Years Honours list, and have two books published by Dorling Kindersley - Be Plastic Clever and Be Climate Clever.
Through the books, their campaigning, and activism, they hope to inspire other young people to find, and use, their voices to bring about the positive changes they want to see in the world.
Early on, they set themselves a goal of collecting 100,000 pieces of plastic litter (one for each sea mammal killed by plastic pollution each year). They reached this target in 2021 and encourage others to also pick up litter and log it on the their litter logging map.
They also run a KAP club with over 200 members around the world who they support in their own action against single-use plastic.
I am 10 years old, live in Spain and am Kids Against Plastic’s Chief Pickup Officer (CPO).
I am CPO for a reason – I’m a keen litter picker! I pick up regularly on my walk to school, collecting hundreds of pieces of plastic every trip that is safely disposed of instead of being left to litter the streets. I organise clean-ups to get my friends and community involved, and have even invented my own litter picking technique – the ninja pick!
The aim of my 1 Million Litter Pick Campaign is to get kids, parents and schools involved in making a change to the world around them, “doing their bit” while raising awareness about the dangers of plastic and over consumption.
And I'm going on an Eco Mission to Paris for the ChangeNOW2024 Climate Summit, picking litter all the way there and back!