38 Degrees are a group of Board Members, Staff and Volunteers who all have the goal to make positive social changes. At the top of their 'About us' page is written: "38 Degrees is the angle at which snowflakes come together to form an avalanche – together we're unstoppable."
One of their current campaigns was started by Geraint Ashcroft whose campaign called for Walkers Crips to ditch their plastic packaging. In support of his campaign Ashcroft wrote "Crisp packets have been found intact after 33 years." and went on to write "Many will be ingested by animals, fish or birds leading to a slow lingering death."
The campaign seeks to have companies use materials in their packaging that can be easily recycled and is better for the environment, unlike the current materials being used.
Walkers are responsible for many crisps packets such as; Wotsits, Quavers, and Walkers Crisps themselves.
Crisp campaign
On the campaign page, Ashcroft wrote "We call upon Walkers and other manufacturers to change the materials for their packets to one which is recyclable or even more preferably a non-plastic environmentally friendly material"
The campaign has since had 310,482 with an aim to reach 400,000 signatures. The campaign has even received a response from Walkers parent company Pepsico. In their statement, Pepsico wrote, "Please know that we hear you on the issue of plastics and packaging and are taking it very seriously."
Pepsico went on to write "To help us beat our target of 2025, we’re collaborating with a number of experts and partners across the UK and internationally to speed things up.
Unfortunately, there isn’t currently an alternative packaging solution available for us to use now."
However, one campaigner Robin Priestley, who posted the statement to the 38 Degrees website was disappointed with the lack of commitment to make changes from the company. He listed the issues that he felt still needed to be addressed for the success of this campaign.
His list included three main points; no commitment to bring forward the deadline to phase out plastic in the next seven years, no commitment to trialling anything new in the UK and no commitment to launch a scheme to deal with the billions of packets that currently end up littering our streets, filling up landfill, or floating in our oceans.
Post your packet
If you want to get involved and join the campaign you can go to the 38 Degrees website and sign the petition. You can also find the address to post your Walkers packet to and how to do it via their website.
You can also find out more information on this campaign or any of their other current campaigns. 38 Degrees also allows its volunteers to start their own campaigns on Social Issues they may be passionate about or wish to change.
