BAGGING BORIS London 2012: Shouldn’t we be plastic-bag-free?

Greener Upon Thames - Press Release 22nd November 2011
 


Today Boris Johnson was presented with a special gift from Greener Upon Thames, who are calling for a plastic bag ban at the London Olympics. Ocean rower, Roz Savage is going all out to make sure the London Mayor is aware of the campaign.
 


Fresh back from rowing solo across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, Roz called on City Hall, wearing a plastic bag coat and unveiled a banner saying ‘London – Shouldn’t we be plastic bag Free?’

The banner is in support of Greener Upon Thames’ campaign to ban plastic bags at next summer’s Olympics, a campaign that Boris has so far not agreed to publicly support.
 
Greener Upon Thames is a grass roots not for profit organisation campaigning against disposable plastics. They are asking the public to support a Plastic-Bag-Free Olympics by signing the petition at
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/2012-plastic-bag-free-olympics/sign.html

Zac Goldsmith MP, co-Patron says:
 


‘The Games are nearly upon us. If the 2012 Olympics are to be the greenest ever, then banning plastic bags is a prerequisite. They cause immense damage throughout the world and absolutely symbolise the mindlessness of our throwaway society’.
 


ENDS

For further information ring Michael Glazebrook on 07736 069336 or email mike@greeneruponthames.org

Notes for Editors

Greener Upon Thames is a London-based grassroots not for profit environmental organisation campaigning for a greener UK, where the ubiquitous plastic bag and other disposable throwaway plastics become a thing of the past.
 

Our Campaign to ban plastic bags at London 2012 was launched in November 2010 by campaign Patrons, Zac Goldsmith MP and ocean rower/environmentalist Roz Savage. The campaign is backed by celebrities including Sir Richard Branson, Dame Vivienne Westwood, Jeff Bridges and Sting, organisations including the Marine Conservation Society, the 5 Gyres Institute, thousands of London residents and has worldwide support.
 

The London 2012 organisers’ assurance that this would be the ‘first sustainable Games’ is looking an increasingly empty promise. Greener fears that the Olympics could prompt the production of hundreds of thousands of plastic bags, which would be carried around the world, creating a global problem, and shaming the British capital.
 


The Gift
will be a sample of Atlantic ‘plastic soup’. The plastic soup is a sample collected by the researchers of the 5 Gyres Institute from the North Atlantic Ocean, where much of our plastic pollution ends up, killing wildlife and contaminating the food chain.



Roz Savage holds four world records for ocean rowing, including first woman to row three oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian. She has rowed over 15,000 miles, taken around 5 million oarstrokes, and spent cumulatively over 500 days of her life at sea in a 23-foot rowboat. She uses her ocean rowing adventures to inspire action on the top environmental challenges facing the world today.

She is a United Nations Climate Hero, an Athlete Ambassador for 350.org (http://350.org), and an Ambassador for the Blue Project. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Explorers Club of New York, and has been listed amongst the Top Twenty Great British Adventurers by the Daily Telegraph and the Top Ten Ultimate Adventurers by National Geographic. She is on the board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation. She has been honoured with the Ocean Inspiration Through Adventure award, and in 2010 she was named Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic.



Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith is a former editor of The Ecologist magazine and author of The Constant Economy (2009).