Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Karen McVeigh

‘You don’t get to aim big when you are somewhere small’: A teenager’s fight to end single use plastics on her Scottish island

A teenage girl standing next to a pile of plastic rubbish in a boggy clearing
Tabby Fletcher, whose petition to the Scottish parliament collected 26,000 signatures in four months. She launched it after finding dead birds entangled in plastic. Photograph: Tabby Fletcher

Tabby Fletcher, a 17-year-old from the Isle of Jura, off the west coast of Scotland, lives in what many people would probably assume is a pristine wilderness. Yet she regularly sees dead birds, their bodies entangled in plastic, among piles of waste washed up on the island’s beaches after powerful storms.

“In January, we had Storm Éowyn,” she says. “Huge storm surges brought piles of plastic on to the beach close to my house. I saw dead birds wrapped in plastic. It was obvious from little bits inside their decomposing bodies they had eaten plastic.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.