Royal recognition for teenage sisters’ fight against plastic pollution
TWO sisters who have worked across Nottinghamshire to raise awareness of environmental issues said they were “shocked” when they heard they’d been honoured in the 2022 New Year Honours list.
Amy and Ella Meek, aged 18 and 16 respectively, began to educate themselves on the issue of plastic pollution when they were 12 and 10-yearsold and have since founded Kids Against Plastic a campaign that encourages people to reduce singleuse plastics.
It also aims to inspire young people that they can make a difference.
They signed up over 1,300 schools across Great Britain, as well as their local council and the Houses of Parliament to reduce their plastic use and disposal through their latest campaign, Plastic Clever Schools.
The siblings, from Gedling, are now being awarded with a British Empire Medal (BEM). Amy said: “We were shocked really; surprised! We couldn’t believe it because we just started our charity back in 2016 just wanting to start something small. “We can’t believe where it’s come to today, never mind to have been included in the New Year honours list.
“So it’s a real honour and it’s come at such an amazing time for us because we’re just launching and running a new schools initiative to help schools in Nottinghamshire reduce plastic usage. “It was back in 2016 and my sister and I were 12 and 10-years-old and at the time we were studying the United Nations sustainable development goals which had just been rereleased. “Through these we came across the issue of plastic pollution and the scale of the impact it was having, but also how little we knew about it. “We were just really shocked by it and thought that if we didn’t know about it then the chances are that other people didn’t either.”
We can’t believe where it’s come to today, never mind to have been included in the New Year honours list
Amy Meek
The pair have now set their sights on encouraging at least 50% of the primary schools in Nottinghamshire to get involved in their new Plastic Clever Schools challenge.
Amy added: “Since we started this charity we set ourselves the goal of picking up 100,000 pieces of plastic litter.
“We just reached that last week on Christmas Eve, so that was super cool to have managed to do that!”