The 2 Minute Foundation is an environmental education charity. Our vision is to see a world without litter or plastic pollution, where nature thrives. While based in the Southwest, we have gained national reach through our provision of clean up stations and internationally through our online education. We share knowledge, raise awareness and support direct action, helping everyone learn more about plastic pollution and the impact that individual actions can have on collective change to protect ocean health for our own wellbeing as well as the planet’s.
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The 2 Minute Foundation is an environmental education charity. Our vision is to see a world without litter or plastic pollution, where nature thrives. While based in the Southwest, we have gained national reach through our provision of clean up stations and internationally through our online education. We share knowledge, raise awareness and support direct action, helping everyone learn more about plastic pollution and the impact that individual actions can have on collective change to protect ocean health for our own wellbeing as well as the planet’s.
In 2013, hashtag #2MinuteBeachClean was created after storms left local beaches in north Cornwall inundated with plastic pollution. That one hashtag became a grassroots movement on social media, inspiring individuals and local communities to clean up our planet, 2 minutes at a time. In 2019, we became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with the Charities Commission. As well as raising awareness and education, we provide tangible tools and have placed over 1400 litter picking stations around the UK, working with over 1000 volunteers who maintain the stations and promote our work in the community.
It is well documented that plastic pollution is a serious threat to the already precarious health of our planet, and the burning of fossil fuels to make plastic is a major contributor to the climate crisis. In the last 10 years alone, we have produced more plastic products than we did in the previous century. More than 8 million tonnes of plastic makes its way into the ocean every day and 1 in 3 fish caught for human consumption now contain plastic. Our reliance and over-use of plastic has spiralled completely out of control.
Our Three Activations
We exist so that everyone can navigate their way through the climate crisis in a way that is manageable. We provide the following solutions and services via our 3 cross-cutting pillars of Pick Up, Connect Communities and Pass It On.
1. Pick Up
Our network of more than 1,400 litter picking stations (‘Stations’) around the UK provide local communities with the tools to remove litter and plastic from the environment. Our Stations normalize the simple act of litter picking whilst providing an important prompt to encourage people to take. Our Stations have proven to reduce local litter levels by 61% and are placed in locations receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors per year.
2. Connect Communities
Raising awareness continues to be at the heart of what we do. We continue to effectively raise awareness through social media and have built an online community of over 80,000. We run annual, targeted campaigns to encourage people to avoid relying on single-use plastic, such as The Coffee Cup challenge and Refill. Together, these actions are making tangible impact nationwide across all ages.
3. Pass It On
Based in Bude, north Cornwall our beach school provides a unique learning experience that teaches locals and visitors about the important role that the ocean plays as well as the impact of plastics. Sessions are tailored for wide-ranging audiences from pre-school children to secondary aged children at various stages of their curriculum, to regular adults sessions to corporate team building days. We provide in person and online opportunities.