The Plastic petition by a UK nine-year-old has received 72,000 signatures in just seven days under a week.
After studying how microplastics are harming the oceans, schoolgirl Lizzie wants her government to stop sending waste to developing countries.
Boris Johnson has received more than 72,000 signatures in less than a week on a petition by a 9-year-old schoolgirl calling for an end to the sending of plastic waste to developing countries.
Lizzie A *, who has been studying plastic pollution for four years, said she started the application because she thought it was “unfair” and wrong to send unused plastic waste from Britain to poor countries.
Her mother Ether took the step after showing her a piece from the Cityscape series published in the Guardians last week. The UK will continue to send plastic waste to developing countries despite EU sanctions starting this month.
Lizzie, who wants to be a marine biologist or ecologist, said: “In school, we learned about how plastics harm the environment for many years and what it does to the environment. These split into microplastics and cause unimaginable damage to marine life. I was passionate about the oceans and I was upset about how the oceans were depleted because of the plastic exports.
Waste that is not recyclable is usually burned illegally or dumped in ponds or waterways causing irreparable damage to the environment and wildlife from where it enters the sea.
She was particularly upset to learn that, despite her knowledge, the practice of using plastics would continue under the new rules, even though the Tory Party’s manifesto promised to stop the disposal of plastics.
I was amazed at how Boris Johnson made a promise and did not do what he said.
“We are really lazy in not taking action on our own plastic. Every day we collect 300 tons of plastic garbage. When we send this huge amount of plastic to communities that don’t use it properly, they burn it and emit a lot of dirty smoke and it can get into the air and cause a lot of damage to people and the environment.
Lizzie’s mother, a former teacher at Devon, Esther, says Lizzie is checking the progress of the application every day. She first tried to register the petition of her more than ten thousand signatories on the UK Parliament website. However, the application was rejected as her application was forged as there was already another appeal in this regard on the site.
Lizzie is now writing a letter to Conservative Simon Juppe, an MP from East Devon, asking if she can help persuade the government quickly to honour election promises.
“If Parliament realizes that people are enthusiastic about not exporting plastics, Boris Johnson can ban it more quickly,” Lizzie said.
A spokesman for the application platform Change.org said the success of Lizzie’s application was during the coronavirus epidemic pandemic.
“Reaching 72,000 signatures in a week is very fast. The spokesperson said, “We are seeing fast-moving petitions related to coronavirus but this application of plastic contamination is increasing very fast. And this is a real clear signal that people care about this.
Last March, Rebecca McCully, a junior physician, filed a petition calling for millions of signatures calling on the government to test NHS workers for coronaviruses. Her story has raised concerns among others and in a few days, the government has promised to give NHS staff testing priority.
• Full name withheld at family’s request
