Ready for war with my plastic gangsters
JO WOOD, 62, is a model, TV celebrity, entrepreneur and ex-wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. She has three children – two with Ronnie – and ten grandchildren, and lives in London. I’VE issued the invitations. I’ve planned activities. I’ve even got some stuff to do some baking. It’s half-term and my grandchildren are coming to stay.
So far, so normal. Except the activities I’m planning are, I hope, going to teach them about the evils of plastic and what we have all got to do to save our planet.
‘Do you want to come and stay with me for a couple of days so we can be anti-plastic gangsters?’ I asked my granddaughters Lola, 12, my stepson Jesse’s daughter; Maggie, eight, my daughter Leah’s eldest; and my niece Kitty, 14, who is my sister Lize’s daughter.
‘Yeah!’ They chorused, so we are all set to take a bit of direct action.
I have lobbied Waitrose in the past to reduce the amount of plastic packaging on their food. This half-term the girls and I plan to do a grocery shop, strip the packaging off and abandon it in a trolley.
That will be on Valentine’s Day, appropriate enough since we are showing our love for our poor, damaged planet.
The next day I’m taking Lola and Kitty, who wants to be a model like her auntie Jo, to a fashion show for clothes made from recycled river and ocean plastic. It’s by Vin + Omi who have dressed everyone from Michelle Obama to Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Debbie Harry will be on the London catwalk modelling. You can be cool and care.
When I was the age the girls are now I can remember taking glass bottles back to collect a 5p deposit, the butcher wrapping our meat in greaseproof paper and buying fresh fruit and veg which went straight from the scales into your shopping bag. Today, if I want a couple of avocados they’re on a plastic tray sealed in more plastic. It’s insane.
We have turned the Earth into a rubbish tip in my lifetime and now we must clean up. I want to die knowing I have done my bit for the environment. I also want to know I have fulfilled my responsibility to a new generation. It might be a big lesson to learn in halfterm, but it’s urgent and grannies can be good for more than just traditional stuff.
As I said, we will also be baking. I am good cook, but a bad baker, so Lola has volunteered to teach me instead.
OFF TO OUR LOCAL WAITROSE FOR A SPOT OF DIRECT ACTION