Plastic Free Okehampton is one of the 671 groups in the United Kingdom that have created themselves to assist their Community, in this case Okehampton, to become as free of the use of single use plastics as is possible. In turn the national organisation, based in Cornwall, is an offshoot or project of Surfers against Sewage.

Fran described the main objectives of the Group in Okehampton as covered by the words; Refuse, Refill and Reuse. She explained how they were searching for "Plastic Free Champions", businesses and offices in the town who would undertake to reduce or eliminate their use of plastics, especially single use plastics, in their day to day activities or from their shop shelves.

She explained how the national organisation has set each Group a target of finding 5 businesses (especially Retailers) who would to eliminate (as far as possible) plastic wrapped products from their shelves and replace them with refillable options or packaging such as paper, cardboard and other biodegradable materials which are sustainable, re-utilizable or do not represent a hazard to the environment in one way or another.

So far the Group have signed up Cathy at Okehampton Nutrition and Health, in Red Lion Yard, Okehampton as a Champion. In turn Cathy has "championed" the cause and done so much to reduce plastic packaged products in her shop that the National Plastics Free organisation have recently awarded the Shop a Silver certificate and she is currently attempting to find even greater wins in the Shop which will allow her to gain the coveted Gold Certificate, held by only 6 other Retailers in the Country. 

In addition to Business Champions, Fran explained how the Group needs to identify "Allies". These are Groups and Organisations (such as the Town Council, who has already signed up) who will do what they can to reduce their use of plastics and be an exponent of these good practices to others.

Fran explained how the Group together with the national resources that it can command, can do research on behalf of businesses to help them resource plastic free alternatives and generally advise on ways to reduce their use.

She then went on to talk about the involvement of the Group and its local members and supporters in activities and events that happen or are promoted around the Country. For example, July is "Plastic Free Month", which the national website describes in similar terminology as one might use to describe fasting in the Lenten period.

The Month is in addition to the "Big Green Week" which is another annual initiative organised by the Climate Coalition. The event was held in June and now we have to start thinking about activities for the next event in 2025.

She talked about the "Green Hearts Project" which happens annually in February where Members construct a card or poster with a green heart (instead of a traditional red St. Valentine heart) and give these cards or posters to persons and groups who they wish to influence to observe a more proactive green agenda. This is an initiative promoted by the Climate Coalition.

Fran explained how many shops and businesses in Okehampton were becoming increasingly "refill champions". There is now a national movement to establish locations or outlets that will refill an existing water bottle as opposed to only selling a bottle of water. This national movement has developed a smartphone App and apparently there are 18 recognised outlets in Okehampton, so far.

She explained about two projects that Plastic Free either organised or had active involvement during the latter part of 2023. These were the plastic cartons and tops collection organised by Devon Recycling in Exeter. She explained how collection points were organised, how the collected materials were taken to an Exeter depot where it was shredded and then used to make plastic furniture by an organisation who turned the profits of the subsequent sales of the furniture back to the community.

The second project she talked about was the pre-christmas clothes swap. It turned out as not so much a swap, but more of an opportunity to recycle old clothes. They hoped to repeat the swap this year but were placing more emphasis on swapping quality items rather than being just a recycling opportunity. 

Finally she explained how Members and Supporters of the Group regularly took part in green space litter picking and also beach litter picking. During her talk Fran frequently commented with some personal emotion about how she was appalled by the amount of plastic rubbish she found on beaches and would often spend longer than the promised twenty minutes, collecting and disposing of such rubbish. She also talked about how a member of her family worked with turtles and about how much small and micro-plastics were now absorbed by our marine animals.