PIPELINE The Journal of Surfers Against Sewage ISSUE 105 | SPRING 2018 Credits/COntents 3 Chief Executive Hugo Tagholm [email protected] Head of Fundraising Pipeline Pete Lewis [email protected] Head of Community & Engagement Dom Ferris [email protected] ENVIRONMENT Finance Manager Rosanna Harris [email protected] Plastic Free Coastlines Deputy Head of Fundraising & Communications Jess North [email protected] WAVES Beach Bums Community Coordinator Jack Middleton [email protected] Science & Policy Manager COMMUNITY David Smith [email protected] Big Spring Beach Clean Campaign Officer James Harvey [email protected] Education & Design Officer Ellie Ewart [email protected] Fundraising Officer Jacey Russell [email protected] Surfers Against Sewage is a national Community & Events Fundraising Officer marine conservation and campaigning Katie Eddy [email protected] Retail Coordinator charity that inspires, unites and empowers S pring Amy Fitzgerald [email protected] communities to take action to protect Marketing & Communications Officer 2018 Sally Fish [email protected] oceans, beaches, waves and wildlife. Trusts & Grants Officer Louise Allen [email protected] Plastic Free Coastlines Support Officer Rachel Yates [email protected] Finance Assistant Nancy Mappley [email protected] Photographers CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S FOREWORD 4 Tim Boydell Cherie Bridges Upstream solutions Andy Hughes Ian Lean Greg Martin PLASTIC FREE COASTLINES 8 Abbi Hughes Steve Banks Growing our communities going plastic-free James Chapman Callum Morse, Saltshots Photography PLASTIC FREE PARLIAMENT 14 Design: A-Side Challenge your MP to support our campaign Printed by: St Austell Printing Company MEET THE TEAM 24 Pipeline is printed on 100% recycled Get to know our 16 staff members and FSC certified paper, using vegetable inks for minimum impact to the environment. Please recycle after reading! INTERVIEW 34 We chat to Richard Walker, MD of Iceland Registered Charity in England & Wales no. 1145877 Trustees: BEACH BUMS UpDATE 38 Ben Hewitt – Chairman Peter Crane – Treasurer Find out the results of our scientific study Dr Heather Koldewey Lauren Davies Alex Wade DEPOSIT RETURN ScHEME 50 Jon Khoo Chris Hides Let’s keep up the pressure Lesley Kazan Pinfield 4 Chief EXecUTIVE’S FOrewOrd Chief EXecUTIVE’S FOrewOrd 5 When a community achieves Plastic legislation and industry accountability to Free status with SAS, it means they have take full responsibility for their plastic not only committed to eliminate specific waste is essential to providing more items of avoidable, single-use plastic, but sustainable systems and products. put the decision-making engine in place The extension of the plastic bag to incrementally decouple their town from levy, the microbead ban and a UK-wide PLASTIC throwaway plastics. deposit refund scheme are proven ways to After all, the majority of the plastic reduce society’s plastic footprint that is pollution our beach clean volunteers find trampling our natural world. But these are is avoidable, single-use plastic: straws, just the start. stirrers, plastic bottles, plastic bags, The time for action is now and it’s up to disposable lighters, plastic cotton bud us all not to kick the proverbial plastic bottle sticks, condiment sachets and more. down the street. We can all join a beach clean FREE These all have an upstream solution to or lead a Plastic Free Community. prevent their presence on our beaches. Government must legislate to force Together with our community leaders, industry to reconsider its plastic footprint we are building solutions to stop plastic and penalise the overuse of throwaway pollution at source. Empowering and plastics. Industry must use plastic-free connecting communities to do this is policies as a market advantage. We must essential to changing behaviours across reinvent our relationship with single-use S FUTURE pring businesses, local authorities, schools and plastic to eliminate, replace and recycle Welcome to the first 2018 issue of committed to removing and recycling as other stakeholders to reduce society’s over plastics faster and more effectively. 2018 Pipeline magazine. The last year has much plastic as we can from our beaches reliance on avoidable plastics. Plastic production is already rampant PIPELINE105 seen an explosion in public, political, we need to redouble our upstream efforts, The potential reach and impact and is also set to increase massively in the industry and media awareness of the in the war on avoidable plastics. Our army of the initial pilot of the Plastic Free next 25 years. We need new legislation and plastic pollution crisis. of 40,000 beach clean volunteers is being Communities programme is massive, systems to stop plastic at source now. Our oceans have brought the problem augmented on a new front; our villages, including 6,240 businesses, 4,160 We can’t simply pick our way out of the to millions of people in the UK via Blue towns and cities through our Plastic Free community groups and 1,248 community problem; it’s gone far beyond being simply Planet II, and the January storms that Communities campaign. events all going plastic-free. The a littering issue. battered the UK demonstrated the Plastic Free Communities is an combined population represented is over Thanks for all your support, huge scale of the issue. Our beaches international initiative designed to unite 19 million individuals, meaning the scope were inundated with vast deposits of and empower individuals, businesses, local to create long-term and meaningful throwaway plastics, creating a toxic government and community groups to change far exceeds anything we have set tideline of plastic products that society reducing their collective plastic footprint. It out to do before. Imagine if 19 million uses for just a few seconds yet persist in is the only holistic, step-by-step framework people start to refuse throwaway plastic! our marine environment for hundreds, if currently available to galvanise community The initiative has captured global not thousands of years. action to reduce local over-reliance and use imagination and we have some exciting Plastic pollution has spread into every of avoidable single-use plastics, with the international plans afoot already. It has corner of our world, not just the UK, a aim of stopping plastic pollution. even been recognised by Environment Hugo – Chief Executive parasite hitching a lift on the essentials of The campaign has been hugely Secretary Michael Gove for its efforts to life; our air and water. successful since its launch last summer reduce its plastic footprint! We must continue to tackle this at the as part of our Plastic Free Coastlines Our politicians and business leaders frontline, where land and sea converge, programme, with hundreds of communities must also take bold and decisive steps but we know that we can’t simply pick already working towards ‘Plastic Free’ to break industry and societal addiction our way out of the problem. Whilst we are status, both nationally and internationally. to single-use plastics. Government The SAS Big Spring Beach Clean at Perranporth Beach, Cornwall Image: Tim Boydell 8 Plastic Free COmmUnities Plastic Free COmmUnities 9 Empowering individuals, businesses, local government and community groups to reduce PLASTIC FREE their collective plastic footprint. COMMUNITIES S pring 2018 PIPELINE105 10 Plastic Free COmmUnities Plastic Free COmmUnities 11 Plastic Free Communities is our national initiative designed to unite and empower individuals, businesses, local government and community groups to reduce their BETWEEN EIGHT collective plastic footprint. It is the only COMMUNITIES holistic, step-by-step framework currently available to galvanise community action to WITH PLasTIC reduce society’s over-reliance on avoidable FREE STATUS single-use plastics, with the aim of stopping plastic pollution. Our initial aim was to establish 125 Plastic Free Communities by 2020. It’s THERE ARE NOW only eight months since we launched 85 PLasTIC-FREE the campaign and we already have appROVED 208 communities working towards BUsiNESSES the award. We are delighted to see Penzance, Alderney, Tynemouth, Aberporth, Perranporth, New Quay, 56 Croyde & Georgeham, and Braunton all having been awarded Plastic Free Status! PLasTIC-FREE S Congratulations to the Community COMMUNITY pring Leaders and their voluntary teams for GROUps 2018 making this happen. PIPELINE105 These eight locations have made some incredible changes to their way of Croyde and Georgeham recently received Plastic thinking and continue to encourage others 47 Free status. Image: Claire Moodie. to join in their mission. Between these PLasTIC-FREE eight communities with Plastic Free Status EVENTS HAVE (with a combined population of 54,084), BEEN RUN there are now 85 plastic-free approved businesses, 56 plastic-free community groups, and 47 plastic-free events have been run. If all 208 communities currently working towards Plastic Free status were to succeed (based on an average It is campaigns like this, and environmental community population of 91,000), there We have already seen the first organisations like Surfers Against Sewage would be a minimum of 6,240 businesses, community, first island, first Welsh 4,160 community groups and 1,248 community and most recently, first inland and its awarding of Plastic Free Coastline community events all going plastic-free. community reach Plastic Free status. There status, that spread an idealism and These figures represent the is an opportunity for everywhere, big or overwhelming reach of the Plastic Free small, inland or coastal, fully recognised commitment to halt and reverse the trends Communities project and the ability it has town or even just an area of town, to apply and forces harming our planet. to positively reduce reliance on single-use the Plastic Free Communities toolkit and plastics across the country. contribute to the movement. — Environment Secretary Michael Gove 12 Plastic Free COmmUnities Plastic Free COmmUnities 13 Plastic Free Communities have The efforts of the communities to rid begun to receive significant recognition themselves of unnecessary single-use as leading the way in the work against plastics are recognition of the upstream single-use plastics.