A Trinity Scholar and a College activist group have both received nominations for the Young Humanitarian Award at the 2019 Irish Red Cross Humanitarian Awards.
TCD Plastic Solutions has been nominated for its efforts to eliminate single-use plastics from campus, while Jessie Dolliver, a Trinity Scholar in botany, received a nomination for her environmental activism work.
TCD Plastics Solutions is a non-partisan activist group founded in 2017 to lobby for the elimination of single-use plastics from campus. Since the group was founded, the Pav and the Buttery have replaced their plastic straws with compostable paper straws.
The Pav has become the first college bar in Ireland to introduce a cup deposit scheme to replace the use of disposable plastic cups. The Buttery has also introduced compostable water and coffee cups.
The group has also collaborated with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union to source and sell low-cost reusable water bottles and KeepCups in the union’s shops. It has also launched a petition, which currently has over 1,000 signatures, to implement a reusable cup scheme for Trinity Ball 2020.
In an email statement to The University Times, Scott Murphy, a representative for the group, said it was “great” to have the campaign recognised. “Two years ago, environmental issues were fringe issues, now the environment is the biggest political issue”, he said.
Campaigns “like Plastic Solutions”, he said, “have played an important role in putting the environment on the agenda in the first place. We’ve always advocated systemic change as well as encouraging personal engagement with environmental issues so I think the campaign has succeeded in that the climate is now front and center of political discourse”.
Jessie Dolliver is a Trinity botany Scholar currently undertaking a master’s degree. She co-founded the All-Ireland Student Activist Network, which organises training for young people in Ireland to take action on issues of social and environmental justice. She also helped establish Not Here, Not Anywhere, a grassroots, non-partisan group campaigning to end fossil fuel exploration and a just transition to renewable energy systems in Ireland and around the world.
Dolliver also co-founded Fossil Free TCD, a campaign group that successfully lobbied for Trinity to divest completely from fossil fuel companies by selling existing stocks, bonds or investment funds.
During her time in Trinity, Dolliver also served as chairperson of Trinity’s environmental and botanical societies.
The second instalment of the annual Irish Red Cross Awards, which will be held in the Ballsbridge Hotel on Saturday, November 16th, aims to “honour humanitarian achievements while raising much needed funds for vulnerable children and families both at home and overseas”. Other categories include the Corporate Impact Award, Journalism Excellence Award and the Innovation for Change Award.
The Young Humanitarian Award recognises “the extraordinary contribution of a young person or group of people who dedicates their extracurricular hours to being a visionary young leader for humanitarian causes” in Ireland.
