ORB member and the author of this post, Lorraine Allman, is the founder of Party Without Plastic®. It’s a movement in the form of a marketplace, eliminating the plastics footprint in the party industry, and supporting small and micro UK businesses with every sale. Here’s the story of what led Lorraine to target large wasteful factories and ecological pollution one celebration at a time.
As founder of Party Without Plastic, I often reflect on the journey that led me to embark on our mission to reduce and eliminate plastic waste in the party supplies industry. It’s a journey that started with a simple yet powerful inspiration – my teenage son who at the age of 13 during the first Covid lockdown discovered we had hedgehogs in our garden.
Prickly pals
After discovering their devastating decline in numbers to the point of being vulnerable to extinction, he embarked on a personal mission to raise awareness about their plight which has resulted in him now, at the age of 17, being an award-winning film-maker, featured on the BBC One Show, Sky News, and interviewed by Amol Raja on Radio 4’s Today programme. For him, those opportunities are simply a way to spread awareness so that even if just one person decides to help hedgehogs after hearing him speak, then that’s a win. He often reminds me that what’s happening with hedgehogs is “…a microcosm of what’s happening to the planet” and so it led me to reflect on what I was doing to help not just my son’s generation, but also future generations in making our world a healthier place for all its inhabitants.
The party industry
The party supplies market is a multi-billion dollar industry growing year on year, yet with it comes vast quantities of waste – from plastics and single-use products to food. The plastic waste generated from parties in particular is staggering, and despite some progress in this area with legislation regarding single-use plastics, there is still a lot of confusion and ‘greenwashing’ for consumers. So, with my son’s passion for environmental conservation as my guiding light (along with his superb tech skills!) I set out to create a marketplace that offers sustainable alternatives to traditional plastic party supplies.
Our mission at Party Without Plastic
Our mission at Party Without Plastic is twofold – to provide consumers with high-quality, plastic-free, earth friendly party products made by UK small businesses, and to empower consumers to make conscious choices that benefit the planet. Supporting small businesses in the UK was especially important to me – they are so often the unsung heroes of our economy, working with sustainable materials to create amazing party products. Each time a purchase is made through the marketplace, not only is the planet being helped, but the people and families behind the small business are also being supported, so a win-win in my book!
Navigating the green maze
The journey to launch wasn’t without its challenges. The technical infrastructure required to meet consumer expectations and build in scalability is immense. I was and am clear that transparency and clarity are crucial to enabling consumers to make informed choices. For that to happen, I needed to better understand the terminology that runs alongside this kind of business, so navigating the world of polymers, bioplastics, and biopolymers had my head buzzing! I worked hard to come up to speed with the latest developments and research, including joining and studying with the IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment), and the Institute of Environmental Sciences (IES).
Hard lines
It was imperative to identify our ‘hard lines’ – the materials we would and wouldn’t accept in products on the marketplace in particular. I’m happy with the published lists we have, but also conscious that as more research is undertaken, that list is inevitably going to change. It’s unacceptable to just slap a label on a product calling it ‘compostable’ or ‘biodegradable’ without fully explaining what we mean by that. Not all plastic-free products are created equal. Many bioplastics promoted as “eco-friendly” still require industrial facilities (which are few and far between) to break down. Some won’t biodegrade at all. Claims that ‘natural latex’ balloons are biodegradable are misleading at best. By the time plasticisers are added to reduce the natural brittleness of the latex, then pigments and compounds added colours and patterns, this isn’t the ‘natural’ product it started out as, with research showing the majority won’t biodegrade for many years, if at all.
What makes a product eco-friendly? Is it sustainably sourced materials, energy-efficient production, minimal carbon footprint or all of the above? Without clear standards, it’s hard to tell. So, it’s up to us to be clear what our standards are, and what we mean by these green terms, to publicly share our definitions, and our ‘hard lines’.
Informed choices lead to impactful change
My son’s passion for hedgehog conservation continues as last year he navigated his way through GCSEs and now A levels. It serves as a reminder that individuals, regardless of age, can be catalysts for change. His dedication has inspired not only the creation of Party Without Plastic® but also a commitment to creating a sustainable future for generations to come.
Informed choices lead to impactful change, and with every obstacle we face, I’m reminded of the greater purpose behind our mission. Reducing, and ultimately eliminating the plastic footprint of celebrations will pave the way for a cleaner, greener planet for generations to come.
Lorraine Allman
Founder of Party Without Plastic®
Lorraine Allman has 20 years of experience running businesses, and excitingly, this is the first fully environmentally focused one. She has worked with families and schools for more than a decade, helping them nurture a Can-Do mindset in children through screen-free play. Lorraine is a three-times published author, who worked internationally supporting Early Years educators. Reflecting on what she was doing to help her son’s generation and generations to follow be better able to look after Earth, she found the seed for this business. Based on a background working with families and children, and being a parent, Lorraine realised just how much waste, and plastic waste, in particular, there is with parties and celebrations. She set about looking at ways to be part of the solution, rather than the problem, and the result is the Party Without Plastic® Marketplace.