Litter picking, shopping second-hand and offering “carbon literacy” training were just some of the ideas and practices that won prizes at this years’s Plastic Free Jesmond and Sandyford awards.

The top award was scooped by Sarah Lewis and Michael Holland who, since moving to Jesmond last August, have made several changes to their buying habits, including refilling products such as spices and cleaning products, shopping second-hand, taking part in the “circular economy” – where products are sent back to make something new – and buying solid soap bars. “A bar of soap is genuinely cheaper,” said Holland as he collected his awards.

Lewis is a climate action manager at Groundwork, a federation of poverty and environment-focused-charities. As part of an initiative to reduce plastic, she suggested hosting “carbon literacy” training sessions for the Jesmond community. These complementary sessions would be a part of a seven-hour accredited course. She says she hopes these sessions could be held over seven weeks in Jesmond Library.

Lewis and Holland, who plan to give a talk about their ideas in the autumn, won a £50 hamper provided by Lauren Wedderburn of Something Good, a shop on Jesmond Road that stocks sustainable goods that are designed to be reused and refilled.

The prize for second place was awarded to Emma-Jane Graham and eight-year old daughter Harriet, who goes on litter picks with her mum at weekends and uses reusable products like containers and water bottles.

“Me and my mummy work hard to reduce plastic by using reusable shopping bags, coffee cups and reusable wrappers in my packed lunch,” said Harriet, whose prize was a Greta Thunberg book, No one is too small to make a difference.

The awards, which attracted 15 entries, began with a presentation from organiser Tony Waterston, about the challenges and opportunities in the community to make changes to plastic use. One idea he sugggested was to reduce single cup use by introducing a “latte levy”, charging for coffee cups in the same way as plastic shopping bags.