Lead a community

When you sign up you’ll be asked to select from the dropdown list of areas. Communities are generally defined by their local authority boundaries but we know that community identity is important, so you can sign up for more than one and combine areas if you need to. We recommend that you start small and build up! Large communities such as counties or cities who want to gain accreditation will need to break the area down into smaller areas and roll the toolkit out across the whole area to achieve status. If you are signing up for a larger area like this you will be put in touch with us so we can guide you through the process.

There are Five Objectives which you will work towards to attain the Plastic Free Communities Accreditation. This forms the basis of what we hope will be long term change in your community. The first thing to do is to check them out in the Community Toolkit. If you’re happy to go ahead and lead your community, then register with us and start making your way through the toolkit. How you choose to tackle it is up to you, you know your community best and how to engage with it.

First of all you need to register with us so we know you are working on the campaign. Once you’ve registered you’ll receive a resource pack from us with all the information and material you need to be able to take action. You’ll also get access to an online Community Dashboard through which we send resources and campaign alerts and you can upload your progress and apply for Plastic Free Communities status. You’ll get invited to Regional Hubs and events and we’re here to help.

First of all a community needs to sign up with us.

It then gets access to a dashboard which helps the community work through the five objectives and start its journey towards becoming a Plastic Free Community.

When it’s time to apply all you need to do is makes sure all of your work and evidence needed for each objective is uploaded. Your dashboard will show you your progress and once at 100% an alert will come to us as SAS HQ to review your application so we can award you Plastic Free Communities status.

Yes! Universities can sign up just as a regular community would, and work towards SAS Plastic Free Community Approved status. However, the Community Toolkit is adapted by universities to suit university life, so for example Local Governance is a resolution from the Student Union and also university management board. University outlets on site count as ‘businesses’, Community Allies would mean work within the Uni community to spread the word and also external community link ups to the local Plastic Free Community and other groups … and so on. As with communities, there is no set time commitment for a University to work towards becoming Approved, it is entirely voluntary and you can also retrofit existing work. If you are signing up for a University you will be put in touch with us so we can guide you through the process. Universities can also support their local Plastic Free Community as a ‘Community Ally’.