NEW GROUND SUMMER 2018 Campaigning for environmental change & social justice

How Plastics Got Political

Andy Burnham My vision for Manchester

Kerry McCarthy Mary Creagh MP Voluntary action will Every day the Tories delay, never be enough more plastics are littered Welcome to our 2018 Summer Edition CONTENTS JAKE SUMNER & PHILLIP FENTON

WELCOME 2018 / Jake Sumner and Phillip Fenton 2 The influence of the BBC programme, Blue set benchmarks to stop the polluters. Planet grows each week. An institution, NEWS / SERA News 3 the European Union, once won Time Labour, can lead change too, not just magazine’s person of the year. Perhaps a TV through the leadership of local authorities Feature / My Vision for Manchester – Mayor Andy Burnham 5 programme should now be taking a bow. It or challenging the government but as Louisa Casson has had a transformative effect on public a movement. We should be going Feature / Plastic Politics – 7 attitudes to the environment including plastic free. SERA is supporting the Feature / Every day the Tories delay, more plastics are littered – Mary Creagh MP 9 the impact humans make. Blue Planet motion passed by several branches for has helped spur change and it has been Labour to audit the plastic it has used Feature / One Less Bottle in the Ocean – Fiona Llewellyn 11 referenced by almost all the writers in our over 12 months and present a plan to plastics focused edition of New Ground. conference to phase them out. The SERA Feature / The Corporate Response to Plastic – Jonathon Porritt and Ivana Gazibara 12 Parliamentary Network of MPs is putting What we have seen is the mainstreaming a focus on plastics too and SERA will be Feature / How Warm Words, Little Action and Plastic Recovery Don’t Mix – Alan Whitehead MP 14 and resonance of an environmental concern holding events at Labour conference. Jake Sumner FEAtuRE / The Last Straw – Holly Lynch MP 16 - the environment getting political. This is is the co-chair of to be welcomed. At the heart of SERA’s The case for change is not simply SERA. He tweets Opinion / The Importance of SERA and the Path for Change – SERA founder Barry Sheerman MP 18 red-green politics and as we campaign for environmental but social. Take bottled at @Policy_Jake water, and the 16 million bottles not an ambitious Labour green programme, Opinion / Voluntary Action will Never be Enough – Kerry McCarthy MP 20 is environmental progress and social recycled each day. Bottled water is justice entwined not separate concerns, expensive, particularly when there’s quality, Opinion / Beyond the Plastic Packaging and the Plastic Pact – Libby Peake 22 environmental and economics policies affordable water from our taps - the lack linked not detached, and people integral of public water facilities hits the poorest. OpiNiON / Tackling Plastic Waste Post-Brexit – Kate Green MP 23 to a compelling environmental programme. It’s excellent to see the Labour-run Welsh government commit to be the first ‘refill Phillip Fenton ViEW FROM LONDON / Wetwipes and Fatbergs – Debbie Leach 25 The spotlight is on plastics. The huge nation’ and to people being able to fill up is the co-editor of New Ground and is Christina Tiran extent and impact of plastic pollution is reusable bottles with drinking water at a ViEW FROM FASHION / Fashion and Microplastics – 27 National Organiser now being revealed and better understood network of public buildings, businesses, for SERA. ViEW FROM INDUSTRY / Everything is Connected – David Newman 28 every day. Beaches strewn with plastic community and transport hubs. Spot on. waste litter across all parts of the globe, TIME TO ACT / Take this motion to your CLP and talk to your Labour councillors 31 seas scarred by plastic in the very deepest There are lessons from abroad too, and not parts and with waste swirls the size of just the Nordic nations but a lesser known TIME TO ACT / Quick Wins – Leonie Cooper AM 32 countries. Plastics have entered the food example, Sudan. Jake was in the country chain - in June for example, researchers in April. The country suffers from plastic R O G U N from Hull and Brunel universities found pollution including bags strewn about (it w D plastic particles in all mussels tested. The is recently introduced a ban). But, what is About e n scourge is posing a self-generated risk noticeable is the network of water pots to humans and wildlife across the planet. every few streets for people to freely use. SERA news Local people fill up and maintain them, New Ground is published by SERA, Labour’s environment There are strong voices, including the which are under cover like a small bus NEWS 8 campaign www.sera.org.uk 1 Chair of the Environmental Audit Select shelter, and provide cups for people too. S 0 Email: [email protected] U 2 Committee, Labour MP Mary Creagh. The age-old technology of earthenware M M E R She has highlighted the 2.5 billion coffee jugs keeps the water cool. It saves plastic If you would like to contribute to cups thrown away each year which bottles, costs and provides a communal future editions or join our mailing In case you missed it, we were proud to SERA’s successful and high profile can’t be recycled, and called for a 25p benefit and respite in the searing heat. list, please contact Phillip Fenton, Socialist Society be named Socialist Society of the year at campaign on air quality, A Breath of levy - which the Government is yet National Organiser at SERA the 2017 Excellence Awards. The Award Fresh Air, was particularly highlighted to heed. Starbucks though has trailed [email protected] The goal to remove single use plastics, of the year recognised SERA’s important voice and for praise and recognition. Launched in a levy and Waitrose has committed to change products to remove plastic waste role within the Labour Party and the work 2016, the campaign has highlighted the end disposable cups. More is needed. The views expressed in New and recycle 100% of plastics produced, is Ground are those of the of members, the executive and the excellent environmental and social justice impacts a huge challenge. We will still be affected authors and not necessarily work of our staff, and we would like to thank of the air pollution crisis and called for Government have announced a bottle by the damage we’ve already done but, if those of the editor, SERA its everyone who has been involved in any of Labour to back a new Clean Air Act – deposit return scheme but it must be we act ambitiously now, we’ve a chance executive or its members. our campaigns or activities. something that was made a manifesto far more ambitious, driving change to live in a world that we want to see. commitment in the 2017 General Election. across production and industries and Printed and published directing more research to harness This edition of New Ground has by UNP, The I.O. Centre, the UK’s leading science base to work inspirations from SERA members, Labour Unit 7, Skeffington Street, with industry to make food production representatives and NGOs setting out their London, SE18 6SR the most sustainable in the world, and ambitions on how we purge the plastic. 2. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice NewsSERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 3. NEWS news FEATURE

We previously reported in New Ground how A range of proposals and announcements Manchester’s SERA were working with Andy Burnham on were made including: brining forward his Green Summit - a policy commitment the date by which Greater Manchester is Green Summit first announced at a SERA event, we made carbon neutral by at least a decade are proud to report back on what was to 2040; launching a plastic-free Greater The problem with Plastic a successful event. Over 700 key local Manchester campaign; and investing up businesses, environmental experts and to £150m to transform cycling and walking R O interest groups from across Manchester in the city-region. A second event is now G U N and my vision for w D came together to accelerate Greater in the pipeline that will bring together e n Manchester’s green ambitions. The day findings from the first summit and shape

included headline speakers including Andy the next steps for Greater Manchester. Manchester SERA himself, workshops, Q&A panels and more.

NEWS 8 Andy Burnham 1 S 0 U 2 M M E R

A third runway at Heathrow is once again We concluded by saying Labour must be Heathrow Third being proposed. SERA contacted every ambitious; a vote against expansion is Labour MP calling on them to oppose not a vote against the economy, rather it Runway Vote expansion of Heathrow airport as we is an opportunity to call for an economic believe the government’s approach is and environment policy that goes hand fossil fueled with no commitment to the in hand; where growth is not reliant on environment or the country’s climate change fossil fuels but on renewable technology, Blue Planet 2 was instrumental in and cutlery, for which plastic is widely used commitments. We also argued expansion allowing us to meet our commitments We can lead the way in raising awareness of the global plastic due to its lightness, low cost, and practical would increase problems around air and on the climate and social justice. problem. Whilst it is widely accepted features. These types of single-use plastics noise pollution. And we pointed out how creating the first single that the majority of plastic waste items are a major source of plastic leakage the government has repeatedly ignored its SERA’s full statement on Heathrow found in the oceans mainly originates use plastic free city into the environment, as they can be difficult legal duties to take action on air quality. can be found online. from countries in Asia, with less waste to recycle, are often used away from home management infrastructure in place, and littered. They are among the items days before the Greater Manchester Plastic is an essential part of our daily lives. most commonly found on beaches, and Green Summit in March 2018, it was Due to its unique properties, it has many represent an estimated 50% of marine litter. announced that the most plastic polluted useful and essential functions. For example, river in the world was the River Tame it can help to save fuel and cut carbon Following the announcement at the Green in Tameside, with the highest levels of emissions due to its lightweight properties Summit, Greater Manchester’s tourism New Organiser Last December we waved goodbye to Exeter before completing a Masters in micro plastic recorded. Although this in planes; used in food packaging it can and hospitality sector have set a target to Adam Dyster. We want to thank him for his International public Policy Analysis at Bath. finding was from a very small number help to ensure food safety and extend eradicate the use of single use plastics by for SERA hard work during his time with us and wish of rivers sampled globally, it is clear the life of the food thereby reducing food 2020. This is as part of a wider sustainability him well in his new role at the National Trust. Phillip explains “I’ve always had an that plastic pollution is a threat to our waste. However, it is clear that the way campaign. The first step is to remove single interest in how the world works and our natural environment wherever you live. plastics are produced, used and disposed use plastic straws, in exchange for a much Our new Organiser Phillip Fenton has been environment is fundamental to everything. of is causing a global environmental more sustainable alternative. The campaign with us since March, working full time I joined SERA because I want to help At the Green Summit, I established a problem and, if left to continue, the will be led by industry and supported by the across SERA’s projects and campaigns, from save the environment. The Labour Party local campaign to eliminate single use damage is irreversible. Millions of tonnes Greater Manchester Combined Authority, air pollution and plastics to SERA’s largest is the only real force in British Politics plastic from Greater Manchester by 2020. of plastic litter and waste are entering for example we will aim to reduce the cost party conference programme for some time. that has the will and ability to protect Supported by over 50 local businesses our environment and some plastic of alternatives for plastic straws through our environment, we’ve seen that in the from the hospitality and tourism sector, takes hundreds of years to break down. encouraging collective purchasing to If you’d like to get in Phillip has previously worked for a Labour past; from Atlee’s National Parks and touch with Phillip, you there is an appetite for change and reduce the cost and drive change, linking Access to the Countryside Act in 1949 can email him at MP and as an organiser for the Labour Party it was clear from the support from Single use plastic packaging, those that businesses from across the city. In June, [email protected] during the 2017 local and general elections. to the Climate Change Act in 2008. businesses, academics and our residents are thrown away after one brief use, are I’m holding a round table with NUS and or send a letter to He has had a passion for the environment SERA has been key in providing Labour who attended the Green Summit that rarely recycled and are more prone to Greater Manchester’s Universities and SERA, 200a Pentonville since living on the South Devon Coast with its green voice since the 70’s”. together we can lead the way in creating being littered. These include packaging, colleges to assess whether we can create Road, London, N1 9JP as a boy, later studying Geography at the first single use plastic free city. some bags, disposable cups, lids, straws the UK’s first single use plastic free campus.

4. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 5. FEATURE FEATURE

Michael Gove recently announced that The Government are also consulting evidence to examine how changes to the plastic straws could be banned in the UK, on a single use plastic bottles Deposit tax system could tackle the problems however the announcement related to a Return Scheme (DRS) which will help to associated with single use plastic waste. consultation on a ban and I believe that tackle ‘on the go’ litter. The proposals are An important aspect of tackling single- what we need is action. Greater Manchester aimed at reducing waste from littering. use plastic waste is innovation in more is a region renowned for innovation – we’re Whilst I believe that this initiative will sustainable products and processes, plastic large enough to experiment at scale, yet have a positive impact on litter, it does and the Chancellor has also announced nimble enough to come together and need a holistic approach to ensure it is a new allocation of £20m of funding to innovate at speed. The Green Summit is integrated into current kerbside recycling businesses and universities to stimulate new a great example of a unique event that’s collection schemes operated across the UK. thinking and rapid solutions in this area. politics brought people together to reduce our carbon emissions, crowdsource ideas For years we’ve relied on recycling to Some retailers and supermarkets are already to make Greater Manchester one of combat the plastic problem. In Greater starting to improve their packaging by Louisa Casson the greenest city-regions in Europe. At Manchester, we currently recycle 47% of using fewer different types of plastic to the summit, I also set out my ambition our household waste. However, as there is make it easier for this to be recycled. to bring Greater Manchester’s carbon a limited plastic recycling industry in the UK, Whilst this is a step in the right direction, neutrality target forward by at least a we currently only collect plastic bottles for this needs to happen on a much larger decade from 2050, to double our electric recycling (all types including toiletry bottles scale. Innovation is what Manchester is well vehicle charging infrastructure and to such as shampoo and shower gel bottles known for and I’m keen to see investment explore the creation of a GM Energy as well as milk and pop bottles). Greater in this area to create some economic and Company and GM Environment Fund. Manchester has the UK’s third largest Low green job benefits for the conurbation. Carbon Environment Goods and Services There’s no denying that plastic pollution ‘Cabinet alliance to press for new taxes and world make denying the problem pretty (LCEGS) sector, outside London and the The plastic problem needs a joined up is being talked about in ways no other restrictions on throwaway plastic’. When impossible. Plastic pollution is a very visible Greater Manchester is South East. I’m keen to see the sector collaborative approach. Reducing single use environmental issue has for many years. energy saving regulations were slammed as scourge, which leaves an immediate trace. grow further and faster and seize the global plastics in Greater Manchester is a good interfering and invasive, it’s pretty incredible This is a key advantage over the invisible a region renowned for opportunities that are emerging as we start, but we need significant investment in Plastic is the hot topic that everyone - from that affecting the nation’s morning cup carbon mounting in the atmosphere, with collectively strive to be kinder to our planet. alternatives and in the technology to recycle the BBC, to the Queen, to Wetherspoons of coffee is now regarded as fair play. widespread, diverse and long-term impacts. innovation – we’re large other types of plastic; Greater Manchester - is making announcements - and even enough to experiment at Other types of plastic food packaging such has the appetite to lead the way. taking action on. In contrast to carbon So why are plastic tonnes a goer while the But it’s the way that plastic pollution has hit as pots, tubs and trays are mainly made budgets and energy efficiency, plastic gigatonne gap remains the preserve of an emotional chord that is really striking. It’s scale, yet nimble enough out of low grade plastic that cannot easily pollution has surged out of the green energy policy wonks? not that we’ve suddenly become inundated be recycled and there is little demand for bubble, making a splash on front pages with single-use plastic, or that we’ve only just to come together and it from manufacturers. There is also no Andy Burnham and capturing high-level political attention On the simplest level: plastic is hugely noticed the waste strewn across beaches, financial incentive for manufacturers to use is the Labour at no less than than the Commonwealth relatable - the very nature of the problem roadsides and riverbanks. But it’s undeniable innovate at speed recycled plastic in their products, which Mayor of Greater Heads of Government meeting, summits is that single-use plastic has become central that David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II means they are able to create new plastic Manchester. of G7 leaders and the United Nations. to our everyday lives. Visit any train station series, portraying the painful, poisonous products out of virgin materials. This is He tweets at and you’re sure to see passengers carrying impact that plastic pollution is having something that I hope will be addressed @AndyBurnhamGM In some ways, campaigning to stop the disposable coffee cups, signs urging us on marine life across the world’s oceans, through the Government’s recent call for flow of plastic into our environment defies to carry water bottles in the hot weather galvanised the public mood, catapulting so many of the lessons I learnt as a climate and salads covered in plastic film, with plastic into the watercooler issue (and campaigner. With carbon reduction, the throwaway plastic forks and spoons ironically probably leading to the downfall conventional wisdom went: go less heavy included (which may also be wrapped of watercoolers and their little plastic cups). on the facts that imply doom and gloom, in yet more flimsy plastic packaging, and avoid focusing on individualised designed to be discarded immediately). Given this emotional resonance, it’s solutions that both sound like you’re casting interesting that caring about plastic blame and can feel hopelessly inadequate If throwaway plastic is relatable, then so is pollution, even companies and individuals There is no financial incentive for compared to the scale of the problem. the waste it leaves behind. Who hasn’t seen taking action to reduce respective plastic With plastic, I’ve lost count of how many plastic food trays by the roadside, or plastic footprints, isn’t seen as threateningly manufacturers to use recycled plastic in their times I’ve heard news presenters - and bottles bobbing along in rivers? While we ideological. It’s become one of the rare even people in pubs and cafes - recalling might baulk when hearing about the 16 issues around today that isn’t embroiled that ‘up to 12 million tonnes of plastic million water bottles that go unrecycled in in conflicts over whose ‘side’ you’re on. products, which means they are able to create enters our oceans every year’. And while the UK every day, if we break that down But here we come to the question of the Daily Mail, and in turn David Cameron’s per person, then yes, that sounds about whether plastic is just the latest green new plastic products out of virgin materials government, howled over EU standards for right. When we hear about a rubbish truck’s fad, or something deeper: a gateway issue more energy-efficient vacuum cleaners and worth of plastic that enters our ocean to much bigger social and political change. toasters, we now have the entire Cabinet every minute - it might be shocking but swapping throwaway coffee cups for the now commonplace picture of coastlines Watching the flurry of tweets after Blue reusable ones and the Mail celebrating a and entangled sea creatures across the Planet II told the heartbreaking story of

6. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 7. FEATURE FEATURE

...we need an international response, Every day the Tories delay, underpinned by global solidarity that acknowledges our responsibility half a million coffee cups and 700,000 bottles are littered the harm plastic is causing to whales, it For while the Tories have tried to own London to cut pollution from single-use Mary Creagh MP was incredible to see how many people this issue - from Gove matching his tie to plastic bottles, while Bristol Council have were turning straight to big retailers, his reusable coffee cup, to the Treasury built on the Refill campaign, started by tagging the Tescos and Amazons to consulting on new taxes and charges - Bristol campaigners City to Sea, making ditch the amount of plastic packaging on tackling plastic pollution properly and it easier for people to fill up on tap their products. The power of plastic to embracing the opportunities it opens water across the city. Labour councillors Plastic is everywhere. But the huge starve. Small plastic debris, microplastics, down into microplastics which have been galvanise people into action, defending up should be Labour’s natural territory. are well-placed across the country to volumes we produce, use once and throw is often mistaken for food and eaten. This found in fish, birds, shellfish and even deep the natural world and demanding major Labour’s efforts to open up access to take action, translating what ‘resource away mean plastic is now in the food we threatens commercially important fish sea creatures. The Chief Medical Officer, shifts in corporate responsibility is coastal paths tapped into the nation’s efficiency’ actually looks like in practice. eat and the air we breathe, from the deep and shellfish, but it also means plastic Professor Dame Sally Davies has said she something to watch very closely indeed. nostalgia for seaside holidays and coastal ocean to the Arctic North. While there has which has washed into the sea is entering is concerned about the physical effects of It is here that plastic becomes politically walks - the same sentiment behind This can also go bigger. There’s a been a lot of talk from the Tories, they the food chain. The vast majority of litter microplastics on humans such as blockage very interesting: opening up the potential communities coming together to clean up significant opportunity for Labour to have taken no real action to turn back the in the UK’s coastal waters is plastic, and of the gut and chemical toxicity from for broader societal and political shifts. beaches. Equally, provisions for introducing channel momentum to tackle plastics plastic tide. This is despite the fact that things are set to get worse: on current toxic substances and release them when the hugely successful plastic bag charges into support for new and innovative plastic takes 5 seconds to make, 5 minutes trends the amount of plastic in the sea they pass through the digestive system. Government ministers are already paying across the UK comes from the Climate economic models, developing a ‘sharing to use and 500 years to disintegrate. will treble by 2025, according to the lip-service to this. Michael Gove has Change Act, one of the most important and economy’ that safeguards workers and Foresight Future of the Sea report. hooked his green crusade on plastic as the vital pieces of legislation passed by the last consumers. These are vital tenets of a Plastic is a wonder product; it is cheap, While large pieces of clearest illustration of his affirmation that Labour Government. It shows that Labour less resource-intensive economy, where easy to make, versatile and durable. It The plastic pandemic has spread to all environmental policy must also be insulated can be ahead of the curve and tackle everyone has a role and a responsibility. has made products more affordable, and parts of the ocean all over the world, plastic litter are unsightly, from capture by producer interests who the big picture - not just ride the wave. its light weight reduces transport costs. in shallow waters and deep. Worrying put their selfish agenda ahead of the As the sea of announcements tackling Single-use plastics have also brought new research shows plastic is building the biggest risk comes common good. Even the Prime Minister Passing the world’s first comprehensive plastic continues, it’s injecting both benefits: from low-cost hygienic medical up in one of the world’s most unique from what you cannot see herself has spoken about the need to ‘end climate law underpinned the UK’s efforts hope and urgency to public concern for products to making food last longer. It and vulnerable environments: the Arctic. throwaway culture’ - words you’d expect to motivate a global response to climate the natural world. I’ve recently heard is no wonder that the amount of plastic The Arctic is already under stress from to hear more from a seasoned activist. change. Just as carbon pollution doesn’t mutterings that the focus on plastic each person uses is growing worldwide. climate change. It is warming twice as stop at any borders, plastic now flows pollution has distracted attention from all But the rise of plastic has fostered a fast as the rest of the world, and summer Making cosmetic products which contain But we need a societal response that goes on currents all around the world. That the other environmental challenges facing throwaway culture where 13 billion plastic sea ice cover could disappear within microbeads was banned this year, after beyond pithy phrases. We’re already started means we need an international response, us, pulling focus from climate change. bottles are used in the UK each year. a generation. Researchers have found my committee called for it back in 2016. to see big plastic producers deploying the underpinned by global solidarity that But this issue is now thriving off its own This has a terrible environmental cost. that plastic concentrations – in particular But there is still much to do to tackle same tactics from the fossil fuel industry’s acknowledges our responsibility (with momentum, and offers an entry-point microplastics – build up in the sea ice in the microplastic pollution from other sources. playbook (themselves copied from tobacco many of the major plastic producers for broader change. Environmentalism Walk along any beach and you will find winter, and are released during the summer Car tyres, road paint, and clothing and companies) to shirk responsibility for the headquarted in Europe and North America) at large is now being viewed as a vote plastic marking the line of the tide. Old melt. Most of the marine plastic pollution upholstery are all sources of airborne problem. Those efforts to cast doubt and capacity to make a difference - winning strategy by the Tories. Labour pieces of fishing gear, such as buoys and which comes from the UK ends up in the microplastics. When breathed in, over the scale of the problem (“it’s just rather than falling into the trap of simply should see it as a strategy for change. plastic nets lie next to plastic bags and Arctic, carried by currents and prevailing microplastics cause lung damage, including a litter problem”) and offering solutions blaming the South East Asian countries bottles. It puts off tourists and harms winds. We have a unique responsibility to scarring the lung tissue. During our inquiry, that avoid tackling the problem at source frequently namechecked for the highest wildlife. We are all paying the price of prevent plastic waste in the UK entering we were told that the smallest pieces of (such as funding bins emblazoned with leakage rates of plastic entering the ocean. Louisa Casson is dealing with it: in 2010 local councils the sea. This is something my Committee plastic – known as nanoplastics – are small corporate logos, rather than reducing the an environmental spent £15m organising beach cleans. will be investigating over the summer. enough to pass into the bloodstream, and production of single-use plastic) could That global response starts at home. campaigner and is a can even permeate cell membranes. Yet gain the upper ground. If we want the Labour-run cities and councils can set member of the SERA In the sea, plastic is having a devastating While large pieces of plastic litter are there is a dearth of research into the human current buzz around plastics to have a the bar high, just as they have with Executive Committee. impact on fish, seabirds, and other marine unsightly, the biggest risk comes from health effects, and the Government should profound political legacy, Labour must seize plans to shift to 100% clean energy. She tweets at wildlife. Animals become tangled in large what you cannot see. Weathered by wind be funding this as a matter of urgency. the moment and play a role in what can Sadiq Khan has announced plans to roll @LouisaCasson pieces of plastic debris and suffocate or and tide, large pieces of plastic break become a powerful movement for change. out a network of water fountains across

8. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 9. FEATURE FEATURE One less bottle The 5p charge on plastic bags means we have used nine billion fewer bags in the ocean

since it was introduced two years ago # O neLess Fiona Llewellyn

How many plastic bottles of water have shoreline. So many in fact, that in just two with City to Sea to trial a refill scheme you seen out and about today? Whether years, with our partner Thames 21, we’ve (#RefillLondon) that allows people to pop on the street, in someone’s hand, or in collected over 37,000 plastic drink bottles into shops, cafes and even pubs, and Instead of taking action to turn back Every day the Tories delay, half a rates are stalling, and the waste industry a shop, bottled water is everywhere. At from along the Thames as part of our work fill up for free, with no questions asked. the plastic tide, the Tories have focused million coffee cups and 700,000 has told my committee the Landfill Tax the same time, thanks in part to Blue to understand the scale of the problem. on generating positive headlines to try bottles are littered. The solutions has done all it can to promote recycling. Planet II, awareness about ocean plastic We haven’t got all the solutions to unlock to rebrand their party and boost their are not rocket science. We learned is at an all-time high in the UK. People Londoners individually churn through the refill revolution yet though. For example, appeal to young people. For eight them in school: reduce, reuse, recycle. It has been over 20 years since the PRN are horrified – and rightly so. Around an average of 175 plastic water bottles how can major events, such big marathons years, Tory Environment Ministers system was introduced (by the Tories eight million tonnes of plastic is entering each every year. Only around half of these and festivals completely eliminate bottled have sat on their hands and ignored First, we need to reduce the amount of in the 1990s) and we want to know the world’s ocean each year, killing are recycled, the rest end up in landfill, water and still hydrate thousands of calls from the recycling industry for plastic we use. That means encouraging whether it has driven up recycling rates, wildlife, damaging ecosystems, ruining incineration or are littered, ending up in people quickly and easily? And that’s why policies to drive up recycling rates. people to bring their own water bottle. simplified packaging design, or delivered our shorelines and entering our food our streets, our waterways and rivers, from we’ve just launched the #OneLess Design It means obliging restaurants, cafes, and high-quality recycling. I have asked the chain. Clearly not good news for anyone. where they can flow out to the ocean. In Fellowship 2018. Over the summer we’ll The Tories have pursued ‘do nothing policy, bars to offer free refills. In many European National Audit Office to investigate London for example, many people forget be working with designers, urbanists, while evidence of the harms of plastic has cities drinking fountains are commonplace, the system and the 200 firms which are This is why in 2016 the Zoological Society that we are in essence a coastal city, linked technologists, planners and architects to grown, leaving the recycling industry to but there is just one water fountain in authorised to issue Producer Responsibility of London (ZSL) launched the #OneLess directly to the ocean by the River Thames. design and develop innovative solutions face a double whammy. First, China has West Yorkshire. Sadiq Khan, the mayor Notes and collect a fee. Where does the campaign. #OneLess is a collaborative to overcome some of the more difficult recently banned imports of plastic waste, of London, is leading the way with his money go? Not to hard-pressed councils initiative, working to transform London into The good news is that everyone in the UK barriers preventing London from eliminating which means contaminants could build up plans for a network of water fountains whose budgets have been slashed. I a city that no longer uses plastic bottled can make a difference really quickly and bottled water. These solutions will be in the UK. The chief executive of a leading in London. There is no sign of the Tories am concerned they may be exploiting water, and instead refills.W e have decent really easily. If all UK adults ‘went #OneLess’ showcased and trialled later in the year. waste management company recently doing the same for the rest of England. the system’s opacity and complexity. tap water here in the UK – so why do we feel today and stopped buying bottled water, told me the effect of the ban on prices the need to package it in single-use plastic? choosing instead to carry and use a refillable As individuals, we can all make the decision in the UK recycling market threatens the Second, we need to encourage people to The Tories’ attempt to rebrand themselves bottle, we’d eliminate over 7.7 billion to say no to plastic bottled water. But viability of some UK recycling centres. reuse their plastic. A small charge on single- as the party of the environment is a cynical The aim of the #OneLess campaign is to plastic bottles from the system every year. we need more leaders, businesses, use plastic items is often the best way to attempt to win back the young people who create a ‘refill revolution’ across London organisations, local authorities and Second, Brexit could mean we lose the nudge consumers to do the right thing. left them in droves at the last election. (and eventually the whole UK), where The #OneLess movement is already government bodies to take responsibility EU’s legally binding recycling targets. New The 5p charge on plastic bags means we They have made some big promises on the carrying a reusable bottle becomes the spreading across London, with too. Join our growing network of #OneLess long-term targets would drive investment have used nine billion fewer bags since it environment, but when the media moves new social norm and filling it up on the retailers, venues, food outlets, visitor pioneers who are all actively taking steps in the UK recycling industry, and help was introduced two years ago. A 25p latte on Ministers bicker in Cabinet, putting go is easy. We’re doing it because we all attractions and universities ‘going (however small) to eradicate bottled boost the stalling English recycling rate. levy on coffee cups would help reduce environmental problems in the ‘too difficult’ need to get serious about reducing the #OneLess’, saying no to bottled water. We’ve only got one ocean, and The EU is in the process of updating its the mountain of 2.5 billion coffee cups box. The public wants to see action, and amount of single-use plastic in the world, water and joining the refill revolution. no-one wants it to be filled with plastic. targets as part of its circular economy the UK uses every year, none of which are consumers have shown they are willing to if we’re to have any hope of stopping the Adopters so far include Selfridges, package. If the UK does not sign up to recycled. It would encourage people to switch to sustainable alternatives. Now damage it’s causing to our ocean. Every ZSL London Zoo, the Natural History Find out more at www.onelessbottle. the ambitious proposed targets then we invest in a reusable cup. As nice as it was Ministers need to step up and do their bit. time someone refills instead of buying a Museum, 15Hatfields, Borough Market, org or follow @onelessBTL on Twitter risk falling behind the rest of Europe. to see the cabinet told to use a reusable single-use plastic bottle of water, that’s Sotheby’s and King’s College London. coffee cup, we need policy not piety to potentially one less bottle in the ocean. We have had a lot of good talk from encourage consumers to do the right thing. The potential for change here in London, Ministers. Speeches re-announcing And just in case you were wondering and across the UK, is huge - and the why this is an issue for London and the neat thing about #OneLess is that we’re intentions of 65% households waste Last, but most important of all, we need a Mary Creagh MP recycled by 2035. But the reality is that fundamental redesign of the UK’s system is Chair of the UK as a whole, the culprits throwing looking for the solutions to help make Fiona Llewellyn, he has taken no concrete action to boost of taxing waste. The two pillars of the Environmental plastic into oceans are not just far-off, this change. ZSL are now working with Marine Project faltering recycling rates or reduce plastic system, Landfill Tax and the Producer Audit Committee developing countries with poor waste the Mayor of London to test different Manager, ending up in the ocean. His department Responsibility Note system are supposed to and Labour MP for management systems. Take a walk along ways of improving the city’s ‘on-the-go’ Zoological Society of London is consumed by Brexit – a problem he reduce waste going to landfill and to make Wakefield. She tweets the River Thames during a low tide. You’ll drinking water infrastructure, including created – and unable to come up with the companies pay to ensure their packaging is at @MaryCreaghMP see hundreds and hundreds of plastic installing a network of drinking fountains new, radical policies the UK badly needs. recycled. But English household recycling bottles and other plastic items littering the in public places. We’ve also teamed up 10. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 11. FEATURE only Around FEATURE

1 million 14% which of global plastic is less tonnes than of the The Corporate response to Plastics packaging of post-consumer total is actually collected plastic waste volume for recycling is recycled and ensuring lasting used sustainable change and biodegradable. And the Ekoplaza only 14% of global plastic packaging True enough, there is some evidence store in Amsterdam recently opened is actually collected for recycling, with of change in societal habits in this area, Jonathon Porritt the world’s first plastic-free supermarket chronic infrastructure deficits in many supported by the right set of policy & Ivana Gazibara aisle, which it will roll out to all of its developing and emerging economies. interventions. When the 5p plastic bag 74 branches by the end of the year. charge came into place in this country But even here in the UK, it’s hardly a brilliant in 2015, for example, there was a lot of So, plastics is at an inflection point: we picture. Around a million tonnes of post- doubt as to its impact. And yet, less than know what the issues are, we understand consumer plastic waste is recycled, less a year later, England’s plastic bag usage the need for change, and there are some than a third of the total volume used. dropped by 85%. And we know that there genuinely pioneering practices out there, Again, collaboration here is going to be are more ambitious schemes that have had activity. The BBC itself committed to go microbeads ban to consult on the best way 2017 witnessed an unprecedented level from corporate commitments to disruptive critical. M&S, for instance, has a target similar effects in other countries, such as plastics-free, directly referencing the of introducing a deposit return scheme, as of interest in the topic of plastics. It innovations to legislation. But the critical that “all M&S product packaging in the the bottle take-back system in Norway. impact of the programme, and a number has already been introduced in Scotland. was the year that Ocean Rescue and point in any change story is sustaining that UK that could end up with our customers For example, it will be fascinating to see of businesses followed with a variety of Blue Planet 2 programmes sparked change so that it effectively becomes the will not only be ‘recyclable’ but ‘widely who cracks the whole refill challenge. The increasingly ambitious targets around outrage and sadness about our plastics At the end of April this year, the UK Plastics ‘new normal’. For plastics, that means: recycled’.” Great – but there’s not a hope Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that plastics. Sky has set itself a target of phasing addiction and the environmental damage Pact was unveiled, bringing together in hell of M&S delivering this on its own. reuse models are economically attractive it is doing to the planet, particularly out all single-use plastics from its business Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl and 1. Go for scale. for at least 20% of plastic packaging the oceans. The twittersphere was in and its supply chain by 2020; Iceland Waitrose in a series of pledges: by 2050, all 4. Innovate faster. (by weight), to the tune of $9 billion. overdrive with emotional messages committed to remove all plastic from its plastic packaging will be reused, recycled As much as the individual corporate targets and promises to never use a single own-label products by 2023; LIDL will use or composted; 70% will actually be recycled are laudable, campaigners have challenged The grand challenge of plastics pollution The good thing about these initiatives is plastic bag again. But will it stick? 50% recycled materials within its own- or composted; and all plastic packaging them to resist ‘collaboration fatigue’, and will need a lot of bold leaps. Without that they challenge the very essence of brand packaging by 2025; and Waitrose should have 30% average recycled content. to make sure they prioritize working with disruptive redesign and innovation, our ‘use and throw away’ culture. Those It was only in 2014 that we discovered will not to sell any of its own-label food in others to ensure pioneering practice is both technologically and through new horrendous gyres of plastic waste across our that more than five trillion pieces of plastic black plastic (which is largely unrecyclable) This was broadly welcomed by taken to scale. The UK Plastics Pact is a good supply chains, we cannot hope to get oceans provide the most visibly compelling are floating in the world’s oceans, largely beyond 2019. Nothing like some good campaigners – but not as an alternative start, but there’s far more still to be done – this mega-challenge properly sorted. proof we’ve ever had that there is no ‘away’ deriving from products such as food and old fashioned competition, as they say. to proper legislation from Government. and scale is absolutely critical to move some What’s encouraging is that a number on planet Earth. And there never will be. drink packaging and clothing. Soon after There’s considerable scepticism, for of the most interesting innovations out of of initiatives are looking to support that, it was the turn of microbeads to hit And fast-moving consumer goods instance, about a further pledge to the niche space and into the mainstream. such ventures, through early stage the headlines. Greenpeace campaigned companies have been on the move as remove all single-use packaging that is funding, from Closed Loop Oceans, to for a ban, and at the end of 2015 the US well. In 2017, Unilever pledged to use 100% ‘unproblematic or unnecessary’. Who 2. Think (and act) globally. Sky’s Ocean Rescue Ventures, to the delivered. By the following year, more reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic decides that, you may ask! And there’s Innovation Moonshots programme of than 300,000 people signed a petition packaging by 2025. Since then, Nestlé and anger that the retailers have been Jonathon Porritt Whilst a lot of today’s plastics campaigns the New Plastics Economy initiative. asking for the same ban in the UK, 11 other big brands have signed up to the campaigning so hard behind the scenes is a leading and policy today are locally focused, and the Government rapidly acceded. same targets. In October 2017, Procter and to ensure that they don’t end up paying environmentalist, plastics pollution will require globally- 5. Tackling the elephant. author, director and Gamble launched the Fairy Ocean Plastic more to address the plastic packaging coordinated action. This was powerfully founder of Forum Today there are multiple campaigns under Bottle, made from 100% post-consumer challenge – despite paying much less than demonstrated when China banned the Greenpeace is right to call for a shift for the Future. way, from the Surfers Against Sewage recycled and ocean plastic. Both Coca- retailers pay in most European countries. import of plastic waste at the end of last in emphasis “from one of individual He tweets at Plastics Free Coastlines campaign, to Cola and PepsiCo have come out with year, a move that left the British recycling responsibility towards corporations @jonathonporritt MSC’s Plastic Challenge, to the UN’s plastic plans of their own, though both have Beyond that, a variety of niche innovations industry in disarray. Two-thirds of our reducing their production of throwaway #cleanseas work. Awareness about been roundly castigated by Greenpeace. are bubbling up from the edges. Ooho recycled waste was exported to China, plastic packaging.” Yet we still have to plastics pollution is at an all-time high, has made waves with its algal-based and will now need to be incinerated, address most people’s dominant attitude providing an incredibly important window It’s a reasonable assumption that new policy edible water ‘pouches’, which are now landfilled or exported elsewhere. to consumption. Our current ‘normal’ Ivana Gazibara is of opportunity for radical change. and regulation will emerge far faster than featured at Selfridges. A group of Japanese means rapidly consuming the stuff we Associate Director would have been the case without such huge scientists are working on a new species of of UK at Forum 3. ‘Recyclable’ is not enough. buy, and throwing away the packaging. That window was blown right open when public concern. The EU recently declared bacteria (Ideonella sakaiensis) that ‘eats’ for the Future. If all we end up with at the end of this Blue Planet 2 aired. It was the most watched that all packaging in member countries will PET. Ecovative have designed a new She tweets at Another key part of the plastics challenge change process is society being more BBC programme of 2017, and it helped have to be recyclable or reusable by 2030. form of packaging made of mushroom @ivanagazibara is not just what’s recyclable, but what’s willing to recycle, this will be a failure. catalyse a wave of corporate and policy And the UK has now gone beyond the ‘roots’ - cheap, plentiful, easy to grow, actually recycled. The reality is that 12. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 13. FEATURE FEATURE How warm words, little action and plastic recovery don’t mix

Alan Whitehead MP

At last, it seems the nation has got plastic bags, but that particular measure collected: essentially putting much of otherwise unprocessed mixed low grade opinion started to resolve the ‘pull through’ for recycling plastic to a high standard? We plastics. It may have taken a documentary has, a long history of being campaigned the plastic however collected into low plastic will appear in the waste economy, problem of much recycling – investment in provide underwriting for the development by a national treasure to shift the nation upon well before the present broader grade mixed plastic filled containers and probably to be dealt with by incineration producing a recycled ‘product’ not taking of renewable energy: why not do so for in the general direction of ‘plastics issue really came to public attention. shipping them mostly to China. Almost 60% at best, and further landfill at worst. place because investors say that there is no the development of renewable plastic? are not such a good thing as people of plastic waste over the last decade has market for the product – recyclers finding thought and something ought to be The reality of ‘dealing with plastics’ however been exported in this way, which means The relatively easy route of export over that there are no processing plants for There is a new waste strategy expected done about it’ but that is where we is far more complex and challenging than that only a proportion of a proportion the last decade has not only meant that whatever is recycled : a dampening effect later this year from the Department of are now, and clearly there is a sudden the immediate raft of ‘consultations’ is actually processed in any way in the serious plastic recycling facilities have on recycling efforts – and in this instance Environment. To date the consultation on and not very coherent pressure on suggest. To start with it is not just about UK. This was for a while a mutually been slow to develop, but the very basis recycling to preserve the integrity of it has not included any of the elements government to do something about it. ‘single use plastics’ which somehow can be beneficial relationship: China needed upon which plastic can be presented to different product quality: result - a recycling mentioned here that might apply to plastics. reduced or eliminated: over 70% of plastic basic plastic for its rapidly expending such facilities has lagged in development. outcome low in the waste hierarchy and Unless consultations on bright ideas such as Government response has been equally waste overall arises from plastic packaging, consumer services, and for the UK a Plastic film, for example is collected by more virgin plastic coming into the system. a return deposit on plastic bottles are not incoherent. Theresa May has committed which is not going to be significantly useful ‘safety valve was in place meaning only 19% of local authorities, and yet followed up by action on methods to follow the country to eliminate all ‘avoidable’ reduced or replaced in the very near future, that little effort after collection, had to over 700,000 tonnes arise each year, All this leads to some fairly stark conclusions through on what might be a much greater plastic waste by 2042, (or by 2050 if you but continues to mount each year with be put into the fairly expensive business with very few facilities established about our present plastics landscape. If we supply of recyclable bottles into the system, read Michael Gove’s 25 year Environment all the consequences of placing yet more of actually recycling the stuff collected. to reprocess it even once collected. do not soon develop measures to deal with then such plans will have little long term plan) there will be ‘consultations’ on a virgin plastic into the environment without the mountain of unsorted plastic waste effect on the big end issue on circularity possible deposit return scheme for plastic clear lines of approach about how it can But even if we were able to collect most coming our way, the plastics outlook will in the plastics economy. Right now the bottles, a vague treasury suggestion that either be recycled reused or minimized. China has now stopped plastic efficiently, and then recycle it so look much worse for some time to come. signs that Government has understood disposable coffee cups and food packaging that material was available for remaking We will certainly make no progress with this or is taking the initial ideas on plastic could face a levy, a possible consultation It is instructive to consider briefly how all mixed waste plastic plastic products, there is still a gap the goal of making the plastics economy use and reuse, are few and far between. on banning plastic straws, drinks stirrers this mountain of plastic waste has been between that position and the reality of as circular as we can, so that efforts to and plastic stemmed cotton buds. Some managed over the last decade or so. While imports as of the serious amounts of recycled content being remove single use plastics from the stream words essentially designed to suggest that plastic waste collection has improved over beginning of 2018 incorporated into new products. At present, are backed up by measures that limit virgin action is under way, but very little actual that period so that for example 58% of not much recycled material finds its way plastic coming into the stream and adding action, as has already been reflected upon used plastic bottles and 32% of tubs and into equivalent products – it is estimated to the pile of problems down the road. by the House of Commons environmental trays are now collected one way or another, that only about 3% of plastic film goes into audit committee which has forensically (which still means vast quantities of bottles, But now China has had enough. Literally. making new plastic film or similar products And that is, I think, the metric we ought to taken apart the distance between the throwaway items and packaging simply After announcing its ‘Green Wall’ policy – all the rest comes from virgin plastic apply to the big question of whether the warm words and anything emerging from enter the waste stream mostly to end in 2012 (to which no notice was taken sucked into the system, Most collected warm words uttered by the Government them and has already taken government up land filled or incinerated) very little is and exports continued unabated) China film goes (or went) to China, and is now on plastics over the past few months have to task for foot dragging after the then done with the material that is actually has now stopped all mixed waste plastic being released back onto the UK market any long term substance: will there be press releases had started to go cold. collected. Correction: something is done imports as of the beginning of 2018. This that contains very little in the way of plant measures to deal with collection of plastic with what is collected but it does not fit means that vast quantities of mixed grade that can effectively recycle film, let alone which hands it to recyclers in a useful state? This, though is now it seems how ‘plastics’ the description of ‘reuse or recycling’ very plastic have no market anymore and will reuse the captured film in new products. – we might at the very least require all Alan Whitehead are going to be dealt with in the public accurately, unless you believe that putting have to be dealt with somehow within plastic to be consistently collected by type MP is Shadow realm. Take an important but essentially a jumble of low grade plastic waste in the UK, assuming substitute markets Ten years ago I worked on and presented in all parts of the country. Will there be any Energy and Climate peripheral element of the plastics stream, containers and shipping it halfway across in South East Asia are not secured. In a ten minute rule Bill to parliament ‘’the legislation that specifies how manufacturers Change Minister and the Labour MP announce an enquiry or a very general the world really counts in that context. practice, just as moves are under way Recycled content Obligation Bill’ which should approach the issue of using what has for Southampton proposal to deal with it and then kick it to start to deal with at least some of would have given government power to been recycled in new products? Will there into the long grass. Granted, some specific For that is what the country has mostly specify a level of recycled content for be any plan or schemes that enable the Test. He tweets at the more egregious misuses of plastics, @alanwhiteheadmp actions are being taken, such as the ban on been doing with plastic waste that is a whole new mountain of collected but particular products. That would have, in my industry rapidly to develop effective plant

14. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 15. FEATURE FEATURE

The Last Straw ...it has been heartening to see the war on plastics go from something of a fringe HOLLY LYNCH MP issue, to now entering the mainstream

The proliferation of plastic waste is Even prior to the spellbinding Blue Planet on any of their announcements on the Once again we were led to believe that The recycling rate has stalled in this use, and the health of marine environments. impacting both our natural environments II series, Labour launched a campaign to environment since the last election. Gove may have been taking this seriously. country and we’re set to miss the current There is much more to do and international and wildlife across the world. The tackle plastic drinking straws. I initially In January he highlighted the issue by target of 50% by 2020. We need to action will also prove crucial in this. problem has become so severe that wrote to the top 20 bar and restaurant The deposit return scheme for handing out reusable coffee cups to all ensure that the UK will not fall beneath the UN’s oceans chief has called it a chains in the country, urging them to adopt plastic bottles highlights how the members of the Cabinet, however, after EU standards on the environment post- The BBC’s Blue Planet 2 series inspired “planetary crisis” warning that life a “straws on request ​only” policy, and Government’s environmental policy a few good headlines, the action failed Brexit and the Government must put in both wonder at the beauty of the world’s in the seas risks irreparable damage. asking them to stock only biodegradable is quick to get the headlines, but to materialise when the Government place policies which can achieve this. oceans and a horror at the way they are straws. The response was positive and much slower to take action in reality. rejected the latte levy in March. being desecrated. Since the series was It’s reassuring to see action being taken several major chains responded with a Finally, when discussing waste prevention, broadcast, it has been heartening to see across the world seeking to address the commitment to remove straws from their Michael Gove has now confirmed that a We are now eagerly awaiting the we can’t overlook the impact of huge the war on plastics go from something crisis and I’m particularly pleased that the businesses. Upon realising that plastics consultation on the specifics of the scheme Government’s upcoming waste cuts to local authorities and how this has of a fringe issue, to now entering the Parliamentary authorities have recently have crept into tea bags, Labour’s DEFRA will have to wait until the conclusion of the strategy for action to tackle the impacted on their ability to collect waste mainstream. People across the country set out plans to go plastic free across the team sent letters to the top tea bag ongoing single-use plastic tax consultation problem of disposable coffee cups. in a timely and efficient manner. We’re are switching to reusable bags, bottles and estate. This will demonstrate to lawmakers producers, urging them to consider plastic- by the Treasury. We’re told to expect a seeing increasing numbers of councils coffee cups. Retailers are being called out that bold action is possible and significantly free alternatives. Responses are currently date of 2020 but with so much uncertainty To add to this inaction in preventing plastic opting for collections every three weeks on social media for examples of excessive reduce the amount of unnecessary coming back from these firms and it has at present and timelines sliding across a waste, we’re also concerned about the with many introducing increased charges and wasteful packing in their stores, and waste generated in Westminster alone. been reassuring to see the appetite for range of DEFRA policy areas, I don’t think Government’s approach to recycling the for bulky waste or garden waste collections. events such as Wimbledon are banning action on this specific product. Although anyone would be surprised if this was waste which has already been produced. straws, after handing out 400,000 last year. As Labour’s shadow minister with the amount of plastic contained within allowed to slip. This is indefensible when, Conservatives currently posing as responsibilities for the marine teabags may be small, it is just one more as a country, we use 13 billion plastic drinks Progress on recycling must be driven environmental champions would do well However, if we are to see meaningful change environment and coastal communities product which doesn’t need to contain bottles a year, with more than 3 billion through a comprehensive framework to reflect on the link between these cuts to we need really need the Government to be I’ve been following the debate around plastic and the vast majority of the public of those not recycled. Why is it taking and the EU has been leading the way, council budgets and the fact that fly tipping taking a lead. Labour’s DEFRA team will plastics extremely closely. I’ve become would not even be aware that it does. the Government so long to introduce with a target of 2030 for phasing out is at its highest level in years. Because continue to hold them to account over their increasingly concerned that unlike a deposit return scheme when 700,000 single-use plastics. In addition the EU’s with fewer resources for bin collections, promises on this issue to ensure that we Parliament itself, the Conservative We recognise that one of the greatest plastic bottles are littered every day? circular economy package requires 65% street cleaning, litter picking, and bulky tackle the scourge of marine plastic waste. Government are failing to match their challenges we face in tackling marine of municipal waste to be recycled by 2035. collections it should be no surprise that own rhetoric with concrete action. pollution, is preventing plastics from It’s a similar story with coffee cups. 99.75% litter is getting worse; it’s fair to say reaching our oceans. This will require of disposable coffee cups used in Britain Compare these concrete, ambitious targets that it’s one of the most visible signs of The Labour party has a proud record of changing consumer behaviour, changing do not get recycled and as of 2011, it was to the vagueness of the Government’s 25 the Government’s continued austerity. protecting our marine environment, and one the behaviour of businesses, as well as estimated that we threw away 2.5 billion Year Environment Plan. While the EU is of the great achievements of the previous improved product design and recycling. coffee cups per year in the UK, a figure that outlining exactly where targets need to These issues around recycling and Labour Government was the Marine and is likely to be even higher today. A poll for be met, the Government’s plan states reducing waste are so important Coastal Access Act 2009. This created a It will also require Government the Independent newspaper found that 54 that they will be developing ambitious because it’s only by tackling the amount Holly Lynch MP is Shadow DEFRA system for improving the management and leadership in order to truly make single per cent of the public support a latte levy of new future targets and milestones, of plastic that we consume and litter Minister responsible protection of coastal ecosystems including use plastics a thing of the past, and to 25p levied on all drinks sold in disposable on land, that we can hope to reduce but that it will take 25 years to tackle for fisheries. She the creation of a network of marine embed recycling into our lives. Yet for all cups. Businesses are taking the lead, with single-use plastics. I’m glad that the the amount that ends up in our seas. is Labour MP for conservation zones. It is in this tradition Michael Gove’s big announcements, our Starbucks trialling a 5p surcharge at 35 Government has now finally agreed to Halifax. She tweets that the Shadow DEFRA team have been primary concern about this Government locations across London, and Pret a Manger, support the EU targets as we leave the It’s fantastic that people have started to fully at @HollyLynch5 working on a number of campaigns to is that they have failed to bring forward Costa Coffee and Greggs all offering EU, yet it is concerning that Europe appreciate the link between the sometimes tackle plastic waste and protect our sealife. a single piece of primary legislation discounts for bringing a reusable cup. is doing all the running on this issue. rather dry topics of waste and materials 16. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 17. OPINION OPINION

The importance of SERA and We have nothing to the path for change lose but our planet! Barry Sheerman MP

We founded SERA, the Socialist For all the passion, energy and action that However, one positive change that has Internet, the media and the entertainment holistic approach must be deployed. As a Environmental Resource Association went into the environmental movement occurred, is that we now have widespread, industry, with their ability to reach millions movement, we must produce a vision that Plastic use and reuse in 1973, as the threat to our beautiful, way back when, it is in a lot of ways robust and indisputable evidence of both through their products and campaigns, inspires all of us on the environmental and in the UK everyday fragile planet from the activity of the astonishing to see that, today, many of the damage we humans are causing to which are also playing a vital part. political left to that which will lead to radical human species became crystal clear. the original issues remain as unresolved the environment and the benefits that policies that deal with the challenge of Friends of the Earth and Green Streams as on our first day, even though we now the planet and all of its inhabitants, At this point, it would be impossible not population growth, water and air pollution, were also responses to this danger. A witness the rise and strengthening of a new, ourselves included, could reap from making to mention the massive impact the BBC’s feeding people sustainably and dealing with small group of us thought that the Labour equally enthusiastic and hopeful wave of significant and sustainable change. For documentary series Blue Planet has had global warming. These are the seriously big and Co-operative movements in the UK environmental concern. It is perhaps for this the first time in modern human history, on people’s perceptions of the true impact issues and we must come up with evidence- and the trade unions were lagging behind very reason that we should very bluntly ask politicians, scientists, entrepreneurs and of human activity on the environment and based solutions founded on good science. in fully acknowledging and addressing ourselves; if someone from an alien world people all around the world simultaneously the subsequent rise in expectation for these dangers and we saw SERA as a had visited 50 years ago and came back just agree that change must happen at once real change. There is no doubt that Blue SERA has been a channel for new way of responding and raising awareness. now, would we be able to tell them with a and for good, and it’s crucial that the Planet and the Attenborough effect has ideas and innovations and a radical straight face all the great things we’ve done benefits reach all parts of our planet. highlighted the impact of plastic waste voice that recognises the benefits Our environment continues to face to improve the state of our planet or would There are obviously some exceptions, on our oceans and seas. This pollution of marrying clear policy objectives extremely challenging times and the we just feel ashamed? I am an optimist, but Donald Trump for one, whose distain has been long predicted by leading based on socialist principles and good 38.5 million need for SERA today and the work it I believe that we would struggle to answer for the environment has led the US to business people such as Paul Polman, science. I am determined that SERA will plastic bottles PER DAY does, is not only as high as ever but it this question with the clear evidence roll back on numerous domestic policies the CEO of UNILEVER, but it has now continue to be that visionary influence has, if anything, increased. SERA, because of change that our planet deserves. aimed at curbing climate change and to finally penetrated the public mind-set. on environmental philosophy and it has been around for so long, now state their intention to withdraw from provide strong political direction in finds itself in an even stronger position, the Paris Agreement. Thankfully however, The UK decision to ban the manufacture the vital movement to save our planet. as it can leverage on all of its history, President Trump’s views do not seem to sale and use of plastic microbeads, experience and expertise to achieve We must shy away from represent the majority of the international inspired by the brilliant report from the We have nothing to lose but our planet! significant impact at a time when public, the Michael Gove style community on this issue and there are, at Environmental Audit and Select Committee, political and private attention is raised. last, enough of us calling for serious change lead by Mary Creagh MP, has been followed 15 million of these approach to environmental that it has the potential to be realised. by a serious consultation on a possible ARE NOT RECYCLED We are now finally prepared to face these plastic waste tax and one on single-use challenges in a stronger, more informed policy, which appears This is an extraordinary historic opportunity, plastics. These are commendable steps but and better equipped way. Attention the merits and responsibility of this is we must shy away from the Michael Gove ONLY Barry Sheerman has now turned towards solving the to favour gimmicks over shared among a variety of actors. SERA style approach to environmental policy, MP was a founding most urgent environmental and social is most certainly a strong voice among which appears to favour gimmicks over 1 in 400 member of SERA in COFFEE challenges Britain and the wider world real, meaningful and them, but there are also tenacious NGOs real, meaningful and sustainable solutions. 1973 and is Labour CUPS face, from climate change to fuel and social enterprises, brilliant and MP for Huddersfield. poverty; from the need to tackle plastic sustainable solutions devoted academics, scientists, and public Bans on certain products and new taxes He tweets at ARE pollution to the shift towards an economy figures that are all deeply committed to are useful weapons in the fight for a better @BarrySheerman RECYCLED increasingly less dependent on fossil fuels. the cause. We must also not forget the environment, but a more strategic and

18. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 19. OPINION There couldn’t be a better time OPINION than now to push for change, Voluntary action will to create a lasting legacy never be enough, we need Some progress has been made by the the Government, for ideological reasons recycling of products they are putting Alliance in piloting cup collection in prefers - there is no transparency, and on the market. The Government used to separate bins and making them into no enforcement mechanism for meeting boast that the UK’s system of producer government legislation products such as garden pots. But it has targets. And only recently, WRAP - the body responsibility was run at the lowest cost clearly discounted sourcing a cup that can that has to deliver on this agenda for the to business in the EU – but this does not be recycled through normal collections Government - has had to make a tenth of mean for society, as cash-starved local to go plastic-free (such as the one that’s been developed by its staff redundant because of funding cuts. authorities and taxpayers are paying for Frugalpac) or increasing the cost of a coffee 90% of the costs of collection. A complete Kerry McCarthy MP in a disposable cup, which, research has Voluntary action alone - be it from reversal of the polluter pays principle! shown, would have a much greater effect on businesses or consumers - is never going encouraging customers to bring a reusable to be enough to achieve the reduction of We need to see a radical Waste and cup than the current 25p or even 50p plastic waste that we all want to see. We Resources Strategy, which addresses discounts. For some reason disincentives should legislate to make sure that targets the stagnating rates of recycling, the are more powerful than incentives. The are set and are met, and everyone plays inefficiencies arising from so many For those campaigning on marine in stemming the tide of plastic which is including a latte levy and stopping the introduction of a 5p charge on plastic their part in meeting them. Without smart different recycling collection systems in plastic pollution, so much has littering our streets. But most of the really sale of single-use plastic water bottles, carrier bags, insignificant though it is for regulation, the best practice businesses will operation, and the pitiful state of our changed in such a short time. big decisions have been deferred, primarily which sets an important example, which most shoppers in monetary terms, resulted continue to lose out commercially to the recycling infrastructure in this country, to an already much-delayed waste and I hope other institutions will emulate. in a drop in their use of a staggering 85%. environmental laggards. which means that much of our waste is When I first started raising the problem in resources strategy, that is now expected exported abroad. The recent China ban Parliament some years ago, motivated by later this year, and the outcome of a I have also been writing to The EU’s recycling targets have been on imports of plastic and paper from the my concern for the marine environment, Treasury call for evidence on changes to supermarkets and brands about their For some reason essential for driving progress on recycling. U.K. may be the crunch point we need it was hardly on anyone’s radar. Huge the tax system to reduce single-use plastic – plastic footprint, publicising this Last year, I asked the Environment to persuade the Government to act. credit for the shift in public awareness potentially when the level of public concern correspondence on the facebook.com/ disincentives are more Minister why the UK’s recycling rate had of the problem must surely go to Blue post Blue Planet II has died down a bit! LetsStopPlasticPollution page that I stagnated and whether the Government We also need the Government to embrace Planet II, which acted as a catalyst to set up with Thangam Debbonaire MP. powerful than incentives. was opposing an EU target to recycle the new economic opportunities that campaigns that have now rapidly gathered No-one is saying it is easy. I know from The introduction of a 65% of municipal waste by 2035. Even the would come from moving towards a momentum. It brought into our homes the my work with Surfers Against Sewage on I’ve noticed that some of the weakest UK’s own estimates have found that such Circular Economy. The future lies not extraordinary habitats and wildlife of our their Plastic-Free Parliament campaign, replies I’ve received have been from the big 5p charge on plastic a target would save almost £10bn over a in the mass consumption of single-use seas and oceans, and the terrible damage that even when you find you are pushing chains, and some of the most impressive decade in the waste sector, greenhouse gas disposable items, or low-cost products wrought by plastic pollution. It was this on an open door, there are still significant outriders have been small businesses. carrier bags... resulted and social costs. She wouldn’t confirm or using finite resources, which are designed juxtaposition, of beauty and wonder up barriers towards ending single-use plastic. in a drop in their use deny the UK was opposing the targets in to fail after their warranty expires, against man-made destruction, that really Take coffee shops. Boston Tea Party, which negotiations and blamed everyone but the but in products that are designed and hit home with the viewing public. There I wrote to the Speaker and the Chair of the has six stores in Bristol, has taken a lead on of a staggering 85% Government for the UK’s poor performance, manufactured for reuse or recycling. We couldn’t be a better time than now to Administration Committee about ending promising to ban all single use coffee cups particularly local authorities and consumers. could be world leaders in this field. Now push for change, to create a lasting legacy. the use of single-use plastics across the later this year. With its takeaway coffee is the time for the Government to seize estate - items such as bottles, cups, straws, sales totaling over one million pounds each Targets alone will not be sufficient. We the moment and make sure that we are. The Government has made the right noises, stirrers, condiments and cutlery – and year, its owners are taking the risk on this There is a huge variation in the level of urgently need a new framework for but action so far has been limited to the replacing them with more sustainable decision seriously hitting its bottom line. ambition in other sectors. Clearly retailers producer responsibility, which better “low-hanging fruit”, such as the ban on alternatives. It was clear the determination are making more of an effort with their incentivises producers to reduce their waste microbeads in cosmetic products (but only was there, but with significant issues to By comparison, the priorities of the big coffee own-brands (although with significant and to design products which are easier to of the wash-off variety). When I pointed resolve: from logistical to the increased cost chains that are working together as part of differences between them) and hats off recycle and recover, as well as to raise costs out during the SI committee approving of compostable or sustainable alternatives. the Paper Cup Alliance seem primarily those to Iceland which has set itself an ambitious on packaging that is difficult to recycle. the ban that such products accounted for While these costs could and should be of a PR nature: to re-brand the ‘coffee cups’ goal eliminating plastic packaging from Kerry McCarthy The prevalence of black plastic, Lucozade only 0.4% of microplastics in our rivers, passed onto the MPs, the In-House Services as ‘paper cups’, and to get better recognition all its own-brand products by 2023. MP is a member of lakes and oceans, the Minister bristled. Team understandably needed to consider of them as recyclable. In theory they are, bottles with their plastic sleeves, and Cillit the Environment, The Government has now moved on to the much larger number of people on the except the hard-to-detach plastic lining in A voluntary UK Plastics Pact was recently Bang cleaning products (which have a safety Food and Rural talking of ending the sale of plastic straws, Parliamentary estate on lower incomes, them means they can only be recycled in announced by 42 businesses to cut plastic mechanism which prevents the whole plastic Affairs Committee stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds from interns and junior researchers to just 5 specialist facilities in the UK. If they are rubbish, which includes an aspiration bottle from getting recycled) all point and Environmental (more low-hanging fruit) and has made a cleaners, security guards and admin staff. disposed of in normal local authority kerbside that by 2025 all plastic packaging can to the weakness of the current system. Audit Committee. She is Labour MP for very welcome commitment to a deposit collections, they will be pulled out and put be reused, recycled or composted. But Bristol East. Kerry as with all these voluntary agreements I would also like to see manufacturers return scheme, which it is currently out for It has just recently announced an in landfill or incinerated. Which is why just tweets at @KerryMP consultation and will make a big difference ambitious package of measures, 0.25% of coffee cups are recycled in the UK. to reduce environmental impact - which paying significantly more towards the

20. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 21. OPINION VIEWS

Beyond plastic packaging Tackling Plastic Waste and the Plastic Pact Post-Brexit

Libby Peake Kate Green MP

Since Theresa May announced, in But, so far, government attention has the lines of the carrier bag charge) to drive It has been good to see rising levels of only of a consultation on the subject. after Brexit if we could already see more January, that the government would focused almost exclusively on packaging the large scale behaviour change needed public interest and concern about the It’s hardly surprising therefore that the energy being put into a wide-ranging show global leadership in tackling and other single use consumer items. to reduce our overall use of plastic. damage that the careless disposal of respected Commons Environmental Audit strategy and policy solutions. For there plastic waste, announcements on This is a sensible place to start, and plastics is doing to our environment. Committee has said the UK government is plenty that could and should be done the topic have come thick and fast. not just because these plastics are the A large proportion of marine pollution There can be no question that this is dragging its feet on this matter. now by the UK government to drive a Last month, the Treasury launched most visible to people. According to our results from plastics entering watercourses subject is important: the sheer scale reduction in avoidable plastic waste. a long awaited call for evidence on research, they also account for the largest in countries lacking basic waste of our consumption of plastics makes If the UK’s approach now can be seen as taxing single use plastics, followed proportion of plastics reaching the ocean management infrastructure. Many of these this issue a priority for government. lacking sufficient seriousness or urgency, we For a start, the public sector and by a promise from Environment from developed economies like the UK. As are in Southeast Asia, where the UK sends Yet despite the success of measures should be even more concerned about what public bodies should lead by example. Secretary Michael Gove that England such, a successful deposit return scheme a large proportion of its plastic waste, such as the five pence charge on plastic might happen after Brexit. The EU’s 2030 Every government department and would definitely institute a deposit (we are still waiting for exact proposals so there’s a UK interest in making sure bags, banning the use of microbeads vision is backed by a range of policies and public authority should have its own return scheme to capture more plastic for England) would prevent a third of UK other countries have adequate sanitation in cosmetic and other products, and strategies which will help it to achieve its targets for reducing its internal levels bottles for recycling. Earlier this plastic pollution from ever reaching the sea. and waste management services. This recent warm words from ministers about targets. While the EU is expected to bring of avoidable plastic waste, while month, to coincide with a meeting would cut plastic pollution and also have banning plastic straws and cotton buds, forward new draft legislation on single public buildings should provide access of the Commonwealth nations, he But that still leaves two thirds of the major benefits for public health. So it is our levels of recycling fall woefully short use plastic later in 2018, a host of other to free drinking water fountains. added that England would seek to problem to solve. Our research has certainly welcome that the government’s of what is needed. In the UK alone, we measures also bear directly or indirectly on ban disposable single use plastics identified several other major categories 25 year environment plan has committed use around 38.5 million plastic bottles the level of plastics use and recycling. These Local authorities have a large role to like straw stirrers and cotton buds. of marine plastic litter that could easily to do “more to help developing nations a day, yet 15 million of these are not include a proposed drinking water directive play, but the pressure of cuts has meant be addressed by targeted government tackle pollution and reduce plastic recycled, while 700,000 a year are which would expand the availability of that recycling rates have plateaued, and And tonight, the environment secretary intervention. The most obvious that need waste, including through UK aid”. littered. Meanwhile, we throw away over free drinking water in public places, a new household recycling rates are deteriorating. will be on the case again, helping to solutions are: tyre dust, which accounts 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every marine strategy framework, new legislation The Government should therefore set a launch the UK Plastic Pact, a voluntary for 18 per cent of the problem; maritime Earlier this month, a £61 million fund was year, with only 1 in 400 being recycled. in relation to waste disposal and recycling, post-2020 recycling rate of 65%, and secure business led initiative aiming to create “a waste, at 11 per cent; preproduction announced to help Commonwealth nations a new directive on waste shipments and the necessary investment in UK recycling world where plastic is valued and never plastic pellets, known as nurdles, which tackle plastic pollution. This includes £16.4 Unfortunately, the UK government’s waste disposal arrangements at ports, and facilities. Nor should we overlook the role pollutes the environment”. Participating are nine per cent; and synthetic microfibres, million for improving waste management response in the face of this environmental revisions to the packaging waste directive. of our city mayors, some of whom are companies are promising, by 2025, to: another nine per cent. We’ve outlined infrastructure, which is a great first step. crisis is depressingly unambitious. In Directives on disposal of vehicles at end already taking bold steps to set out their “eliminate problematic or unnecessary elsewhere some effective measures to January, the government announced that of life, construction products and urban own environmental plans and introducing single use packaging”; make 100 per cent tackle most of these sources, but there The sea change needed to tackle the it aimed to eliminate avoidable plastic waste water will also have an impact. Yet a range of important new measures. of plastic packaging reusable, recyclable has been little movement so far to act. scourge of plastic has started, and today’s waste by 2042 – but the damage that can the UK’s adherence to such measures after or compostable; ensure 70 per cent announcement is another step in the right be done in that time will be enormous. Brexit cannot be guaranteed, and indeed Fiscal measures are also needed. The is effectively recycled or composted; And, with the global use of plastic direction. But to really end plastic pollution Ministers resisted bolder targets proposed the UK government appears to be dragging Government should adopt a producer and include 30 per cent recycled expected to continue to skyrocket in there’s still a way to go. Watch this space. by the European Union, which has set out its heels in giving effect to some of these responsibility compliance fee structure content across all plastic packaging. coming decades, more action is urgently a vision for all plastics to be reusable or measures in the UK, under the pretext that to stimulate use of recycled plastic, needed to ensure single use plastics are recyclable by 2030. Half of plastic waste all is to be settled by the Brexit negotiations. reward recyclability, and increase costs These are all great developments, truly reduced as far as possible, moving generated in the EU is to be recycled, with on packaging that is difficult or impossible and we’re pleased that a number of from recycling to higher up the waste Libby Peake a fourfold increase in recycling capacity. Of course, it might be that the need to to recycle. This would incentivise producers steps Green Alliance has been calling hierarchy. Simple steps the government works for the continue to trade with our European to use more sustainable packaging. for to prevent plastic waste are being could take would include creating a charity and Even where specific action is contemplated neighbours after Brexit will ensure that implemented by a government that has comprehensive network of public water independent by the UK government, it is progressing the UK continues to meet EU standards. The use of disposable coffee cups is environmental promised “action at every stage of the fountains (so no one needs to buy bottle desperately slowly. While ministers are But we could have more confidence attracting increasing levels of public think tank Green production and consumption of plastic” to after bottle of water) and introducing reported to be considering a bottle deposit that our ministers would aim to achieve Alliance. concern, and the government should end this “great environmental scourge”. charges for plastic-lined coffee cups (along and retention scheme, so far, there is talk best practice and the highest standards respond to the Environmental Audit

22. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 23. VIEWS VIEWS

Ministers need to position the reduction of avoidable plastic waste Wetwipes and Fatbergs: as part of a broader environmental A real stain on the v i e w 8 s 1 strategy at the heart of government 0 2 environment

view from Debbie Leach LONDON

Lexie Note: illustrate this with infographic images of plastic bottles/coffee cups Committee’s call for the introduction of has said he will pull the USA out of the “So where are the wet wipes?” asked rowers and paddle-boarders glide serenely fat created within the drainage system, a ‘latte levy’, with coffee shops required Paris international climate agreement, the TV reporter, a little testily. “You’re by, and which are home to juvenile fish from what we pour and flush into it. The to have facilities in each of their outlets and has taken steps to cut back the US standing on them” I answered. It was nurseries of European importance. This Fatberg can grow to colossal proportions, for used cups to be recycled. Local Environmental Protection Agency. UK the Thames foreshore at low tide and is not a healthy environment for anyone. weighing up to 10 or 15 tonnes, before authorities should consider how to reflect ministers need to take advantage of his the cameraman had set up equipment it finally breaks the sewers. It attracts a this in planning and licensing conditions. forthcoming visit to this country to put on a low mound. I bent down, nudged The wet wipe is one of the most rapidly horrified fascination. This beast growing pressure on him to reverse his reckless the mound with my (gloved) hand and increasing items of single-use plastic that and lurking in the pipework under the Individual behaviours clearly have an stance on environmental matters. pulled gently. A long, mud-coloured, people use. While it looks rather like a ground causes great damage, distress from important part to play, and government fraying length of intertwined dirty rags tissue and as harmless as loo paper – they the sewage forced up into neighbourhoods, support for national and local public But the UK’s authority for doing so requires began to unravel from the river silt in are anything but. We must all be cautious and it is extremely costly to get rid of. education campaigns is needed. Ethical a comprehensive, domestic strategy, and front of their horrified eyes. It would when the packet tells says ‘flushable’. business practices are also important, and plans to meet a much more ambitious set of be an understatement to say that the While flushing might appear doable, it The wet wipes that congregate in the voluntary efforts by the business community targets, including plastics reduction. In the riverbed is carpeted with wet wipes; is a really bad idea for our environment. side sewers are more insidious, but should be rewarded. Ministers should absence of urgency from the government, rather that the riverbed is constructed just as dangerous. The blockages challenge the plastics, packaging, retail however, it is Labour that is taking the from them. This is the dark side of the The plastic fibres in wet wipes create a can result in flooding that devastates and leisure industries, among others, to policy lead in this matter. Labour has always River Thames; where used and flushed durable item that will never completely homes, pushes sewage into rivers take the lead in developing waste reduction understood that pro-environment policy wet wipes have rapidly become an disappear. Some of them will be discharged and wreaks havoc on wildlife. solutions, and in sending a message about is both politically popular and socially intrinsic element of our natural world. into the Thames when rainfall causes the the importance of recycling to their just: the key to sustainable growth and sewerage system of central London to The sheer scale of the wet wipe problem consumers. Food retailer Iceland has prosperity in the future. That is what the The Thames is London’s greatest natural overflow into the river - which happens is truly astounding. Every day, thirty- already announced it will eliminate plastic next Labour government will deliver. asset. It attracts millions of visitors each about once a week. More will be cleared one tonnes of wet wipes are now packaging from all its own brand products year and takes centre stage on many from the screens of sewage treatment cleared from the screens at Beckton by the end of 2023, and other retail chains international films, including James Bond. plants and taken to be buried in landfill. Sewage Treatment Plant– and that should be challenged to do likewise. This is where we should be showcasing Even more wet wipes accumulate within our is at just one single treatment plant. how the UK values and protects its natural drainage network and eventually make their Most important of all, ministers need to environment. The River Thames should be presence felt in foul and devastating ways. Since 2005, I have been lucky enough to position the reduction of avoidable plastic shining a light on Best Practice. Instead, run Thames21, the environmental charity waste as part of a broader environmental it highlights an ever-escalating problem; If wet wipes were humans they would be working with communities and partners to strategy at the heart of government. humanity’s reliance on single-use plastic. dubbed ‘extremely sociable’, because ensure that we both protect and benefit That requires a comprehensive, holistic Kate Green MP once released into the wild via your loo, from our network of rivers. With our feet approach that recognises the scale and is a member of the Where wet wipes snag on a twig or they mingle. They cling. They attract quite literally in the river, delivering practical breadth of the threat to future prosperity, European Scrutiny protuberance on the river bed they gather others. They never leave. And when river improvements with thousands of health, peace, and progress in reducing Committee and up others, building in layers into lumpy, combined with fat poured down the local volunteers, Thames21 experiences global inequalities, if we fail to grasp the Labour MP for unhygienic and disgusting mounds in one drains, they create a monster – a Fatberg. first-hand the challenges our rivers face. environmental challenge that our world Stretford and of the most famous rivers in the world. This now faces. That threat is exacerbated by Urmston. She tweets unseen plastic menace is under our very The Fatberg is a misshapen, pallid, Our Thames River Watch programme at @KateGreenSU the actions of US President Trump, who feet at locations where school groups visit, solid mass of wet wipes and congealed trains and supports members of the

24. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 25. VIEWS VIEWS

Fashion and

1 8 v i e Microplastics 0 w 8 v i 2 s 0 1 e 2 w s view from Christina Tiran view from LONDON FASHION

public to survey and monitor the health We need to stamp out the notion that single- Last year whilst our While the fashion industry in the The industry hypes recycling as the most demonstrates that one promising of the river Thames, collecting data on use items are all the better for a bit of plastic. UK is one of the biggest in the popular solution to counter the trend approach to remedy the problem is to pollution from single use plastic bottles, team surveyed a site world, it is debated little in politics of ever producing more synthetics from diversify the fibre basket. Alternatives to to raw sewage overflows. The public We can tell from the raggedy wet wipes and even less attention is given finite resources. However, this practice synthetic fibres are already on the market. are passionate about the river and by embedded in the Thames foreshore that, near Hammersmith we to its environmental footprint. In is only useful in transition. Garments examining its depths, its fringes and the yes, eventually they do start to break down found the highest number recent years, many studies show the made from recycled polyester also Fabrics made from waste have true detritus it transports, Thames River Watch but only to cause a whole new swathe of dangerous effects of micro-pollution shred microscopic fibres. The aim must potential. Orange and apple peel, or grape identifies some of the issues affecting not problems. The synthetic polymers they of wet wipes ever in a in our oceans come from our very own be to produce biocompatible materials waste don’t deplete natural resources. only the river, but the wider environment. contain are released into rivers and oceans single place: 4500 in a wardrobes. We need a systematic from the start. We should all agree that Or Tencel, a viscose like material, is as microplastics, which can be eaten easily rethink of what materials we produce. such harmful materials should not be produced in a closed loop and is derived Increasingly concerned at the volume of by wildlife from tiny organisms to large 154sqm area. Despite produced in the first place. Especially from FSC wood sources, is biodegradable. wet wipes we were finding in the river, marine mammals. In the River Thames, Unlike natural fibres, synthetics do not for products with such a short lifespan. All of these materials offer a cleaner, Thames River Watch began specific an average of seven out of every ten clearing them, this year biodegrade. A recent report by the Ellen less harmful substitute to the textiles surveys to document the scale of the flounder living in the river have plastic in we came back to find MacArthur Foundation showed that 30% Politics needs to help counter this, and currently in use and are in production. The problem. Last year our team visited a site their stomachs. It is an appalling reality and of micro plastic pollution comes from political voices are slowly being heard. industry needs a push to start using them. at Hammersmith Bridge where transect one we must immediately seek to rectify. over 5000 wet wipes washing synthetic textiles. In practice this Labour MP Dr. Lisa Cameron, chair of the surveys of the Thames foreshore recorded means that every time we wash a synthetic recently formed All-Party Parliamentary We are facing a plastic crisis polluting and the highest number of wet wipes ever in It is our collective responsibility to tackle this. garment in the comfort of our homes, Group on Textiles and Fashion, stated endangering our nutrition base. Recycling is a single place: 4500 in a 154sqm area. We tiny plastic fibres are released. They find ‘there needs to be a strong policy agenda not the solution. We need a push from policy returned to the site this year and despite We need to drive public awareness of Equally, and perhaps more importantly, their way into the water system, slip on the use of microfibres” and scientists to phase out plastic. The transition will have the thousands we removed the year before, the damage wet wipes are causing to industry needs work more quickly on through filters and end up in our oceans. from the University of Plymouth will to be gradual, but we need to start now. Thames21 counted even more with the our rivers and the wildlife they support. providing plastic-free alternatives. The receive £200,000 from the government initial tally more than 5000 wet wipes. Wet We need to advocate for reusable wipes public appetite for making the switch Acrylic fibre is one of the worst polluters to research the impact of microplastic wipes are accumulating in mounds with an to be more widely available on the to reusables is there, but investment when washed. According to a study on marine life in aid of this goal. average density of around 100 wet wipes market. At a minimum until reusable in new and sustainable technologies is from Plymouth University, a single wash per square metre. This number is sickening wipes are the norm, we must educate what’s needed now because the way of garments made from acrylic fibres A simple ban is not a solution. Synthetic and cannot be allowed to continue. people to no longer flush disposables. wet wipes are damaging our rivers can release over 700,000 microfibres fibres currently comprise over 60% of is not acceptable. Change is needed into the ocean. While the wider effects the annual fibre production worldwide. Thames21 volunteers often use the Jam Systemic change is also needed. at every level, and it is needed now. are not yet fully understood, experts Conventional cotton, the second most Jar Shake test to show just how hard Manufacturers should ensure that suggest that these tiny synthetic shreds popular fibre in the industry, is the it is to get a wet wipe to break down. their products are clearly and of fibre can have wider implications most pesticide intensive crop and has Christina Tiran Simply fill two jam jars with water, put correctly labelled. If it contains any than the recently banned microbeads reached its planetary boundaries. is a project some loo paper in one and a wet wipe in plastic, it is not flushable. There Debbie Leach is from the cosmetic industry. Some of Action is needed from all sides – the manager at The the other, and shake. The loo paper will should be clear legal consequences Chief Executive the studies show that microfibres have industry, the individual and policy. Sustainable Angle. disintegrate within seconds, but the wet for manufacturers who mislead at Thames21 altered organisms and can end up She tweets at wipe remains robust minutes later. No consumers and fail to educate of best poisoning the food chain. Plastic is likely The Sustainable Angle, a non-political, NPO, @christinatiran one needs a single use wipe so strong. disposable methods via their packaging. to already be part of our food system. organises showcases and gives workshops,

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Everything is i e v w s 8 1 0 2 Connected view from INDUSTRY David Newman

“Plastics plastics everywhere but ne’er dump it as we did until then. Finally, as we Let’s add to this another layer of information. Much of the food waste gets collected with So? What has this to do with plastics? Sounds hard? Yes, it is not easy, but a drop to …recycle”. Samuel Taylor focused on the limits of resources on the Where does the recycling really take place? plastic bags - these are stripped out at the if the Italians, Belgians, Catalonians, Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner would Planet, we started to recycle. Meanwhile Actually we find that the plastics collected plant and send to landfill or incineration. Plastics, food waste, compost, soil, Californians, and many others can never recognise the oceans of today, plastic production grew and grew, now for recycling effectively have been sent About 10% of the food waste collected in food. It is a chain. If we pollute our collect their food waste separately, full of floating plastic waste. Who knows reaching over 300 million tonnes a year. ` abroad, mostly to China. Indeed, half of weight is plastics, and as plastics cannot be soils with microplastics we will produce cleanly and compost it, so can we. how many tonnes of plastics end up in our “collected for recycling plastics” have composted or made into biogas, they need to less food and/or contaminate it; if we the oceans each year, floating down Plastics are cheap, which is why they are gone East for decades. The environmental be eliminated from the processes. This costs instead collected our food waste (about As for the plastics that cannot go on river systems from open dumps in so successful, so plastic waste logically standards and conditions in which they are a lot of money both in the process and for 90% now is not collected) cleanly, through this route, we should tax them Asia, Africa, Latin America and yes, also has little or no value. Certain specific recycled there are disastrous for the local disposal costs. I calculate some £27 million a without plastics contamination, and so that the tax income can pay for them from littering in the UK, Europe and very clean streams, like PET bottles (water habitat, with waste plastic ending up in rivers, year currently in plastic waste elimination in send it to composting and back to soil to be collected, not littered, recycled, North America too. Even here in the UK bottles) when collected separately, and burning plastic emitting smoke and toxins food waste collections. But each time plastics as compost, we could re-establish the not dumped, and treated here in the where waste is generally collected well, kept clean, can be resold and recycled. into the atmosphere, and local populations are stripped out they leave residues which chain of replenishing our soil. Indeed, UK where we make and use them, not plastics finish in rivers and into the sea. There are seven main types of plastic inhaling the emissions. Partly for this reason remain in the biogas by-product (digestate) or we could more or less get three million sent on a ship to Cambodia or Vietnam We are in the middle of an ecological polymer but within these categories in 2018 China stopped these imports. in the compost. Microplastics then end up on tonnes a year out of all the food waste hoping for the best. Did you know that disaster of our own making and it is thousands of variations, as polymers are our soils. Regulations allow an incredible 11 we throw away and back to soil. Bingo! currently plastics producers in the UK pay going to get worse before it gets better. mixed, stuck together, stuck on paper Which leaves us up the river without the kilos of microplastics per hectare of land to be an environmental tax to pay for collection or aluminium. So effectively, you can proverbial paddle. legally spread to soil - seems not much? But We’d also solve a lot of other problems. that is roughly one tenth of those of other Let’s be clear: most plastic waste finishing only really recycle one or two types, 11 kilos is about 1000 carrier bags. Imagine Less CO2 emissions from landfills (when major European economies? Shameful. in the environment is due to poor waste PET and HDPE as long as they are Meanwhile we are collecting for recycling seeing a field covered in a thousand carrier food rots in a landfill it emits greenhouse management systems in developing clean and not contaminated with other materials which can barely be recycled due bags, imagine what it looks like. Except with gases); less incineration of food and You see, it is all connected. And in the end countries. The failure of waste management materials and products, like foodstuffs. to contamination, have zero value, and for microplastics, you can’t see them so easily. less CO2 emissions (burning anything it all comes down to money. As no-one ever across 70% of the Planet is causing this which we do not have the recycling facilities emits greenhouse gas emissions); wants to spend anything, then we need mess. But we are also contributing here However, most plastics are contaminated anyway. Want to know the secret? Most of Hmmm, complicated eh? Plastics no-one less plastic waste, as eliminating food Government to legislate to compel change. in the wealthy countries like Britain due either by the material they are stuck to, this plastic is going to incineration to produce wants to recycle, food waste contaminated waste from mixed waste makes sorting Otherwise, forget going to the beach in a to failures in waste collection, allowing like paper; or by what they contain, like energy or to our landfills, or being baled and by plastics, fields full of plastics. and recycling the other waste easier. few years time, there won’t be any room. littering, encouraging the use of throw- food. This is why recycling plastic is so sent to incinerators in northern Europe. away materials. Blue Planet II has awoken hard. Moreover, if you collect plastics Add a third layer to this. Soil quality. We To get clean food waste collection however, our conscience on the issue of marine with other materials, like paper, glass, Another major waste stream is impacted produce 95% of our food from the land. we cannot continue to use plastics. Other pollution, now what to do about it? cardboard, you will get contamination from by plastic waste: food waste. Throughout Given the importance of soil to us all, countries, such as Italy and Belgium, use a these in the mix, reducing the recyclability the UK (but not in all of England) you’d think we’d protect it as a precious new generation of certified compostable It is complicated, but let’s try to explain. of each of them. Currently the UK claims households separately collect their food resource no? Wrong. We deplete in the UK bio-plastics which compost naturally David Newman to recycle some one third of all plastics waste which gets sent to composting alone nearly three million tonnes of topsoil with the food and breakdown into water is President of Designed to be thrown away afterwards, entering the market but the reality is or to anaerobic digestion where it a year, washed away due to intensive and humus. They are not to be confused the World Biogas no-one back in the 1950s and 1960s very different. Indeed, plastic films such produces biogas, that can be used as a farming and not replaced. Once upon a with cheap alternatives pretending to Assoication, founded the UK Bio-based dreamt of plastic recycling when plastics as carrier bags and wrapping, are barely fuel for heating, for making electricity, time farming was less intensive, but also be biodegradable, we need to ensure and Biodegradable first became ubiquitous. It was to be recycled at all. Overall plastic recycling, by or for transport. About 800,000 tonnes animals lived on the farm and their manure they are effectively certified compostable Industries Association thrown away, full stop. Then came the which I mean effectively actually recycled out of the 7.5 million tonnes of food went back to soil. No longer so much, with a UK standard known as EN13432. promoting bio- first environmental policies in the 1970s and in a plant and coming out again as a waste arising in the UK are separately and according to Mr Gove, our Minister, This would eliminate soil pollution from materials. He is a 1980s which focused attention upon the plastic polymer, I would think it no more collected and go to treatment. The we have just some 30 years of crops left microplastics. We need biobags for former director of Greenpeace Italy need to manage waste rather than simply than 15% of all plastic waste in the UK. rest goes to landfill and incinerators. in the soil before we have exhausted it. the collection of food waste, urgently.

28. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice 29. As part of SERA’s push on plastics TIME TO ACT time time TIME TO ACT we want to encourage the Labour Party to be more ambitious. to act S E to act R k A u k . o r g . S . u E g With plastic at the top of the political and environmental R A . o r Local Government A motion agenda and the Conservative government taking little if any concrete action, we want Labour to think about to take plastic pollution within the Party which we hope will taking action on plastic enable conversations and a cultural shift paving the way for green world leading progressive policy. Rachel Blake to a CLP Join SERA in our fight to tackle plastics Go to SERA.org.uk/plastic to find out more

Up and down the country, an exciting building links with local businesses We set out ambitious proposals in our This motion has already been passed by over 30 CLPs across the country - please take debate is taking place around the use of and parks to reduce the use of plastic. manifesto to reduce the use of plastics locally the motion to your CLP, take a vote and let SERA know when it has been passed plastic. We know the amount of plastic including introducing water fountains to waste generated annually in the UK is To adopt a collaborative approach, local reduce the use of water bottles and working by sending an email to our organiser Phillip at [email protected] estimated to be nearly 5 million tonnes. authorities can work with residents to with local businesses to set up a local ‘keep and tweeting SERA at @serauk with the hashtag #PlasticFree. What does that look like in terms of bring public awareness to the need to a cup’ scheme. We currently have 11 water everyday items; well 13 billion plastic recycle and the correct way to use waste fountains locally and want to identify other carrier bags are used in the UK each year. and recycling systems. There needs locations where we can install water fountains The Labour Party’s use of plastic With plastic taking up to 500 years to to be a clear understanding of what to encourage people to keep a bottle with decompose, the current status quo with constitutes single-use plastics and how them and top up. London’s Mayor Sadiq the use of plastic is just not sustainable. households can dispose such plastics. Khan is supportive of this approach and we This branch/GC notes: are hopeful that this can make a real impact. As more people become better informed Anyone who has tried a ‘day without That the use of plastic when not properly recycled has a detrimental impact on our environment. about the stark reality of plastic, the plastic’ will know how hard it is to avoid That the Labour Party is currently using a large unquantifiable volume of plastic debate will shift towards local and national single use plastics. Removing these from SERA are encouraging Labour governments role in tackling this issue. A our waste stream will require action at Councils to pass a motion affirming and currently does not have a plan or strategy in place to phase out its use. recent Ipsos MORI / King’s College Polling international and national level to work their commitment to tackle time Club survey found the public were concerned with the retail industry to introduce tougher plastic waste. Talk to your local to go Labour councillor about taking about plastic waste but that the public regulations on packaging and plastics, plastic were less willing to take responsibility for a make it easier for people to recycle plastic action to go #PlasticFree. This branch/GC believes: solution. Instead, they thought companies and clearer which plastics can be recycled. A draft council motion can free that produced packaged good (27%) should be found on SERA’s website That the Labour Party should be leading the way and setting an example lead the charge in tackling this. Government As well as signing up to national campaigns at SERA.org.uk/plastics as an organisation that does not use plastic where ever possible. came in at 11% and only 3% of consumers felt to reduce packaging waste, there are actions it was on them to take action. Interestingly, we can take in local government to tackle the poll showed 40% of people felt a use of plastics - drawing on our range collaborative approach was the way forward. of powers and our connections to local Rachel Blake This branch/GC resolves: communities. In Tower Hamlets, we have one is Tower Hamlets While there is still much work to do at a of the fastest growing populations, some Deputy mayor That the CLP Chair and Secretary are to write to the Labour Party General Secretary and national level to reduce the amount of of London’s most visited tourist attractions for Regeneration Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to request that an audit single use plastics in our waste stream, and most popular parks as well as a major and Air Quality. local councillors are well placed to start business district at Canary Wharf and so She tweets at take place on how much plastic the national party has used in the last 12 months and to come tackling the issue. Local councillors generate a high level of plastic waste and @RNBlake up with a plan of action to phase out its use with the findings to be presented to conference. are well placed in their communities, want to do our part tackling the issue.

Join us and help make a difference www.sera.org.uk @serauk serauk

30. SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice SERA Campaigning for environmental change & social justice Quick Wins Advice from Leonie Cooper AM Leonie is deputy chair of the London what you can do today Assembly Environment Committee and the Labour Assembly member for Merton and Wandsworth

On the go At work

• Always carry a refillable bottle – never • Have water on tap and ban single use plastic bottles buy single-use plastic water bottles from desks – encourage staff to have re-usable • Make your sandwiches before you go, don’t ones, perhaps with your company logo buy sandwiches in plastic wrappers • Get any plastic cups replaced with paper ones • Make your pasta or other lunch before – or re-usable, washable plastic cups you go – avoid those plastic pots • Get any plastic knives and forks replaced • Never buy anything with plastic with bamboo ones, if you have a canteen – knives and forks included or have the usual metal washable ones • Get plastic plates replaced with paper or one of the many bamboo varieties – or have ones you can wash up

At home – the kitchen At home – the bathroom/ personal hygiene • Always challenge shops about the amount of packaging – they are getting the message but hearing it regularly really helps. Say it in the shop, • Ditch the plastic stemmed cotton buds say it by email, tweet your views at them • Ditch the wet wipes and the baby wipes – • Buy loose fruit and veg whenever you can and never flush them, they form fatbergs and store it in the fridge to preserve it • Ditch the liquid soap - unless you • If fruit or veg comes in trays, try and choose use the container and refill it cardboard rather than plastic. Never buy anything • Choose products that say the plastic used in a black plastic tray – it cannot be recycled in the containers is recycled plastic • Try a fruit and veg delivery specialist, who • Go for real nappies – join a nappy laundering service will take the cardboard delivery boxes away and re-use them hundreds of times If you do end up with plastic, • Choose cardboard packaging over plastic every time • Choose teabags that have no plastic in them don’t forget to recycle it! • Switch to having your milk and fruit juice delivered in fully reusable glass bottles, collected If we all did just the above the waste of fossil fuels on and taken away by your local milk delivery company to re-use hundreds of times producing plastics which then end up polluting the ocean or in landfill/incineration would drop massively.

time Join us and support SERA in to act S E R k A u our fight to tackle plastics . o r g . www.sera.org.uk @serauk serauk