Time to turn the tide on trash
James Lee, Managing Director of Cromwell Polythene, discusses how we can tackle the scourge of waste and litter.
Litter costs taxpayers £800m annually, according to government statistics. Warmer weather, combined with a summer of staycations and more businesses reopening, means littering can quickly start to surge at this time of year. Most of this is avoidable, and it’s an enormous logistical challenge for waste management and street cleaning teams.
As well as being an eyesore, litter discarded on our streets (or entering our rivers and seas) can harm our environment and wildlife. We know that items can contain toxic materials that are hazardous to our health and, if illegally dumped, these can leach into water sources, contaminate the soil, and pollute the air.
To help tackle this, many local authorities, businesses, charities, and individuals make the ‘pledge to pick’ in Keep Britain Tidy’s annual Great British Spring Clean, which this year took place from 28 May to 13 June.
Trash trends
We’re pleased to annually support this environmental campaign to eliminate litter and end waste. Results from our litter picking activity, undertaken in residential and commercial areas over a series of days by Cromwell Polythene and our manufacturing and recycling division, CPR Manufacturing, showed:
• An increase in tin cans and glass bottles compared to previous years, with a higher level in communal residential areas such as parks.
• Facemasks and other PPE found in industrial areas, with less in residential areas.
• Fly tipping high in fields and woodland areas.
You can find out more information about these findings on our website, but what the results show – and what we continue to reiterate – is that all types of material are littered, not just plastics. None of these materials are to blame: it’s people who litter them. So, we need to change behaviour to improve the environment on everybody’s doorstep.
28 | REGULAR Protective plastic
We regularly emphasise that there are many benefits to using plastic packaging, such as preventing food waste and, due to its lightweight characteristics, reduced fuel consumption, and lower greenhouse gases throughout the supply chain.
Plastic is used for medical equipment and to safely protect specialist items, which is currently extremely important for infection control. Within the cleaning industry, it enables the safe containment of liquids, eliminating environmental leaching of cleaning chemicals and wastes from bottles, for instance.
The industry’s use of plastic waste sacks and bags is the simplest and most cost-effective way to encourage the safe and hygienic separation and collection of materials for re- use and recycling. Everyday plastic packaging can now be widely recycled, if we only had the will to get it right.
A cleaner, greener future
The reasons for littering can be complex, from deliberate dropping of items, to material inadvertently being blown away from overflowing bins. It can also result from misconceptions about what is the right thing to do.
Take dog waste as an example. Dog waste bags are frequently seen tied to trees. Do you think dog waste left dangling is because owners consider the bags and the contents will decompose, so they believe they are doing the right thing? Or perhaps they don’t realise they can put this waste in the standard litter bins provided, or they can’t find a bin nearby, or the bin is overflowing? We’d be interested to hear your views and you can share them with us by answering a quick dog waste poll.
With pressure on funding, local authorities are having to be resilient and creative in their solutions to tackle littering, including dog fouling, to encourage behaviour change. We offer a range of solutions to help support local council campaigns, from litter picking bags, which can be printed with a tailored message; to waste and recycling bags; and compostable bags designed for food and garden waste.
(
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-fund-launched-to-reduce-litter-through-innovative-projects)
www.cromwellpolythene.co.uk
(
https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/get-involved/support-our-campaigns/great-british-spring-clean) (
https://www.cromwellpoAlythene.co.uk/council-dog-waste-insight-pr/)
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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