Isle of Wight residents are being encouraged to take small steps to make a big difference this Plastic Free July. The Isle of Wight Council is supporting the annual #PlasticFreeJuly campaign, which is organised by the Plastic Free Foundation to show that even a small action like saying no to plastic straws can make a big impact. According to Recycle Now, worldwide we produce 141million tonnes of plastic packaging a year. Plastic production, use and disposal adds around 1.8billion tonnes of carbon emissions annually. Made from fossil fuels, plastic can take between 20 to 500 years to decompose. Natasha Dix, the council’s service director for waste, environment and planning, says:
“We are all aware now of the impact we are having on our environment. Easy moves can be refusing single use plastic such as straws or using your own reusable shopping bag. “Reducing, reusing and recycling plastic has a huge positive effect on our environment. “We all recycle but we can make sure that what we recycle is easier to process. Rinsing out plastic to remove food residue makes it easier to recycle into something else. This reduces our need to create new plastic. It also stops other recycling being contaminated at the kerbside.”
Here’s some small steps you can take to make a big difference:
- Sign up the pledge at https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/. The site also has a monthly activity calendar with a whole host of simple actions we can take to reduce our use of plastic.
- Refuse plastic straws: Go for reusable at home and say no when offered at your local restaurant, pub or cafe.
- Refillable cups/bottles: Refill your own reusable bottles and cups. In the UK, we use more than 35 million plastic bottles every day. We also throw 2.5 billion coffee cups every year. (Recycle Now).
- Shop local: Buying local means items are less likely to come with packaging. It is also likely to have travelled less air miles. It also supports your local community.
- Choose loose: Loose fruit and veg is often cheaper than pre-packaged alternatives at the supermarket. You can also choose what you know you will use — cutting down on food waste.
And the iow festival, beloved of the council…..shall we start there?
And let’s include the shirt lifters festival, how much plastic is going to be used during that? But of course it include anything that will be making the council money
I assume the supermarkets will be taking part!!
Would be much more worth while to have a chav/feral brat, snort/swill/smackhead free July, along with any other low life scum being allowed to poison the environment
What about speeding on the island?????
What about incentives for EV Drivers?????
If the council are so concerned with plastic, perhaps they could get the grass cutting team to pick the plastic rubbish
up before strimming and mowing rather than rip it into bits all over the area they have cut.
IW Council don’t give a Fcuk about the climate, if they
did they would be doing more to get dirty vehicles off the road.
Hardly any EVs on the Island