WASTE RECYCLING
New report reveals extent of single-use litter in the UK
A NEW UK-wide report from Plastic Patrol reveals the extent of single- use litter across the UK, following the introduction of the Environment Bill to Parliament that is set to tackle environmental challenges, including plastic pollution.
Plastic Patrol is a non-profit organisation that sits at the intersection of wellbeing and environment and combines community volunteering with technology to collect data on single-use litter.
The report, part of five-year study, presents the analysis of data on 64,913 pieces of litter recorded in the Plastic Patrol app by volunteers up and down the country over a nine-month period from 5 April 2019 to 31 December 2019.
The top ten most frequently found types of litter were:
1. Plastic packaging (21%) 2. Plastic fragments larger than 2.5cm (10%)
3. Cigarette butts (9%) 4. Plastic bottles (9%) 5. Drinks cans (7%) 6. Polystyrene/Styrofoam (6%) 7. Plastic bags (6%) 8. Plastic bottle lids (5%) 9. Fishing net, rope and pieces (5%) 10. Glass bottles (4%)
Highly recyclable items – often consumed ‘on the go’ - such as metal drinks cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles, all featured in the top ten types of litter, indicating that current recycling
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infrastructure and incentives are inadequate.
85% of plastic bags recorded were unbranded, characteristic of those handed out by small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), such as independent grocery stores, exempt from the current 5p plastic bag charge. It is estimated that SMEs hand out 3.6 billion single-use plastic bags annually.
Lizzie Carr, founder of Plastic Patrol, commented: “These results, obtained across the UK over nine months, serve as a crucial wake-up call to us all. It is clear that now is the time for the government, industry and individuals to step up our ambitions and act accordingly to tackle the single-use litter crisis, which continues despite increasing awareness.
“This report makes a number of recommendations including a nationwide ban on plastic bags and a call for clearer producer responsibilities. We are encouraged to see that there are powers to introduce extended producer responsibility schemes in the Environment Bill, but the devil will be in the details as to how they are implemented.
“We will therefore be monitoring the Environment Bill closely as it makes its way through Parliament. This five-year series of reports by Plastic Patrol will be essential for assessing the adequacy of policy interventions and industry’s sustainability commitments in an important decade for environmental protection.”
Professor Janine Illian, Chair in Statistical Sciences at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Glasgow, added: “With nearly 65,000 pieces of litter recorded by volunteers for Plastic Patrol, this report highlights the potential of crowdsourced data and its importance in not only informing us about the extent of the single-use litter crisis, but also the complex challenges for statistical and interdisciplinary research alike.”
Following on from the results of the report, Plastic Patrol recommends the UK Government implements:
1. a reformed waste producer responsibility coupled with a transparent regulatory framework;
2. an ‘all in’ Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) that includes all single-use materials and container types and sizes; and
3. a nationwide ban on plastic bags.
The Environment Bill had its first reading in Parliament on 30 January and included proposals on introducing new extended producer responsibility schemes, a deposit return scheme and charges for specific single use plastic items.
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