A special welcome was extended to a number of guests including Regional President Helen Byrne who joined this Zoom meeting.\u00a0\u00a0 The meeting started with a reading of the Soroptimist Vision and Mission Statement.<\/p>\n
The speaker Summreen Sheikh was introduced by Sushi Gow.<\/p>\n
The presentation covered the background to the setting up of Greenpeace and the range of campaigns it has been involved in and then moved on to a discussion of how to take practical action to reduce plastic waste.<\/p>\n
Greenpeace is an independent organisation with 3 million members spread across 41 countries. Its work started in 1971 with a campaign against Nuclear testing in the Arctic circle. More recently it developed a TV advert about the increasing use of Palm oil \u2013 this was banned but went viral on the Internet.<\/p>\n
Summreen pointed out that the damage done to the Amazonian rain forest was to clear land for the cultivation of Soya Beans. A main use of the bean in this country is to feed chicken and pigs being reared in factory farms.<\/p>\n
The problems of recycling waste and ensuring plastics are recycled rather than added to ground waste were discussed. It was clear that standards vary across local authorities. Ways to reduce plastic use without creating other problems were also considered.<\/p>\n
Peggy Simson proposed the vote of thanks for a very interesting talk.<\/p>\n
See also separate article posted in What We Do news<\/p>\n