Sheffield organisations gather to celebrate Earth Day 2024

The official theme of Earth Day 2024, on 22nd April, is ‘Planet vs. Plastics,’ aiming to raise awareness of the health risks of plastics, with the ultimate goal of completely eliminating the use of single-use plastics both in Sheffield and worldwide.

Ev Williams, 20, member of the University of Sheffield’s sustainability committee, said: “Even here in Sheffield, plastic pollution is a big deal.

“If you go down to the River Don, for example, you can see plastic floating in the water; it’s quite sad.”

The Earth Day fair also included a bake sale run by the University’s Sustainability Committee, of which any proceeds were going towards Sheffield Action on Plastic and the Rivers Trust.

Sheffield Action on Plastic is a local environmental community organisation whose mission is to work with the Sheffield community to reduce single-use plastics.

Greg Hewitt, volunteer at Sheffield Action on Plastic, said: “Students should start getting educated about these issues now so that they can be more climate conscious for the rest of their lives.”

The action group have started a petition to call on the council to equip the city with more water re-fill stations so people are less likely to buy single-use plastics when their water bottles become empty.

The National Trust, who were also present at the fair, are currently working on a 50-year-long landscape scale project to restore peat bogs across the Peaks, as well as plant new woodland, and change the way that farmers manage the land for nature and the climate.

Seb, who works for the National Trust, said: “We’re really lucky in Sheffield as we live so close to the Peak District National Park and this is an incredible resource, especially when it comes to fighting the climate crisis.

“Any opportunity to talk and engage people about the crisis and what we can do to fight it is really important.”

A big objective of everyone involved was to educate others on day-to-day methods of reducing plastic pollution, for example by correctly using their bins at home.

Ways that we can do our bit include: using reusable cups, refusing single-use packaging and avoid single-use condiment sachets.

Mr Hewitt said: “The more people who are making those small changes, the more impact we are going to have to reduce our reliance on this issue which has a devastating impact on our environment.”

Earth Day was first observed in 1970, making this year its 54th anniversary.

It provides an opportunity for individuals, communities, organisations, and governments to come together and engage in activities aimed at protecting the planet for current and future generations.