A group of students in London have highlighted the environmental dangers posed by plastic by carrying a giant snake through a park – made entirely of one week’s plastic household waste.
The project was part of a campaign called Rise Up, the sixth initiative by Our Planet Needs You (OPNY), a climate action programme which is targeted at young people and developed in partnership with Earthshot Prize winning sustainable packaging company, Notpla.
The students, from Wormholt Park Primary School in West London, used the one kilometre long giant snake to demonstrate that individual efforts, when multiplied, can create powerful change.
They gathered the plastic waste used in their homes over one week, then taped the pieces together to form a symbolic ‘Plastic Snake. Organisers say the walk brought together education, activism, and art to help make the invisible scale of plastic waste painfully visible.
Plastic pollution is one of the most urgent environmental crises of our time. Most of it is used once, then lingers for centuries choking ecosystems, infiltrating our food chain, and piling up in landfills and oceans.
OPNY, which aims to deliver measurable reductions in pollution and carbon emissions, said that average UK household throws away 66 pieces of single-use plastic each week. Multiply that across the country, and you’ve got enough plastic waste to wrap around the Earth almost seven times.
Giant Snake Pushes for Packaging Change
But the project goes beyond awareness. At the heart of Rise Up is a call to action directed at
UK supermarkets.
In a collective video letter, students urge supermarket leaders to trial Notpla’s seaweed-based, plastic-free packaging in their West London stores—for just one month.
‘We know plastic is a problem,’ one student says. ‘But we also know better alternatives exist.’
None of us is as powerful as all of us,’ another adds. The students’ letter calls on supermarkets to take that first small step, demonstrating leadership and opening the door to broader, industry-wide change.
Notpla, started by Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez provides an alternative to plastic, by manufacturing items such as food containers, cutlery and paper for cosmetics made from organic material.
It makes the plastic replacements from seaweed – a fast-growing, carbon sequestering plant – which break down anywhere within a few weeks, and can also been recycled.
‘It’s targeted at places where we pick something, we consume it, and it’s over within minutes,’ said co-founder Pierre Paslier. ‘And that’s really where plastic is the worst material because it’s going to be around forever.’
The company won the Earthshot Prize in 2022 and received an endorsement from the UK’s Prince William who founded the event.
Nopla’s edible water bubbles were handed to runners at the London marathon and products have been used at the music Brit Awards and The Kia Oval cricket ground, home to England’s test match team and county champions Surrey.
