Today I proudly join over 50 of the UK’s top authors and illustrators, including Sir Michael Morpurgo, Chris Riddell and Jacqueline Wilson, as we pledge our support for a campaign encouraging the book industry to ditch plastic, to try and save our oceans.
Authors4Oceans is the brainchild of children’s author Lauren St John, who wants publishers, bookshops and readers to reduce the amount of plastic they use by finding eco alternatives to the bags, straws, bottles and single-use cutlery that ends up at the bottom of the sea.
She came up with the idea when she ordered a drink in a bookshop and it came with a plastic straw “It made me think of all the bookshops across the UK – there are 300 branches of Waterstones alone – and about how many of them dish out plastic straws and bags every day. If I had written on behalf of myself I probably wouldn’t have achieved anything, but I thought if I teamed up with other writers and illustrators we might have a voice.”
I couldn’t agree with Lauren more, and along with M.G. Leonard, Abi Elphinstone, Katherine Rundell, Tom Moorhouse, Robin Stevens and Rob Macfarlane, Jackie Morris, Marcus Sedgwick, Quentin Blake and Patrice Lawrence, to name but a few, we are all campaigning to rid our oceans, seas, lakes and rivers of the plastic menace.
You can visit Authors4Oceans website, which has teacher resources, blogs and tips on how to reduce plastic waste.
One school will win a visit from a bestselling children’s author and 50 books – one from every author and illustrator who signed up to support Authors4Oceans. Two runners up will win author visits and 30 books, and a third prize winner will receive 20 signed books.
We were all inspired ny last year’s “Blue Planet II” BBC programme, presented by David Attenborough, which revealed that pieces of plastic will outnumber fish in the oceans by 2050.
It is not too late to change this though – and truly, every step you take will make a difference. So what are you waiting for? Take our pledge!
