Beaminster is Awarded ‘Plastic Free Communities’ Status as it Takes Action on Single-Use Plastic.
Beaminster has joined a network of communities across the UK who are leading the way to tackle throw away plastic at source. The town has been awarded Plastic Free Community status by marine conservation charity, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), in recognition of the work it has done to start reducing the impact of single-use plastic on the environment.
The Town council started the campaign earlier last year after the Council and the Beaminster earth alliance group as it worked towards achieving plastic free status.
Registering with the SAS Plastic Free Communities movement, Cllr Craig Monks pulled together key organisations and businesses in the town to put in place a five-point plan. The objectives include; setting up a community led steering group, instigating the SAS Plastic Free Schools education programme, getting local council commitment and working with local businesses, organisations and community groups to spread the word and minimise the amount of disposable plastics they use.
The Town council, Community groups, schools and its business community started the campaign earlier last year as the first of many projects to improve our town and reduce plastic waste. We want to make our town a cleaner, greener place to live, work and visit.
Cllr Monks said “Achieving this status is the first in our ongoing journey and of course the town isn’t completely plastic free. But our work will grow as we improve the town. This award is the first step to achieving many more goals. Our businesses, schools and community groups have played a vital part in becoming plastic free”
The Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community network aims to free the places where we live from single-use. Using the five point plan the aim is to empower communities to kick start local grassroots action, which can then be built upon.
The marine conservation charity, based in St Agnes in Cornwall, says it wants to unite communities to tackle avoidable plastic from the beach all the way back to the brands and businesses who create it. It says it is not about removing all plastic from our lives, but kicking our addiction to throwaway plastic and changing the system that produces it.
Rachel Yates, SAS Plastic Free Communities Project Manager, said: “It’s great to see the work that Beaminster has done to reduce the availability of avoidable plastics, raise awareness and encourage people to refill and reuse.
“We have over six hundred communities across the UK working to reduce single use plastic and the impact it has on our environment. Every step those communities and the individuals in them take is a step towards tackling the problem at source, challenging our throwaway culture and encouraging the habit and system changes we need to see.”
More information:
Cllr Craig Monks, Community Lead, Plastic Free: [email protected]
Plastic Free Communities: www.plasticfree.org.uk
Surfers Against Sewage: www.sas.org.uk
Plastic Free Communities is an ambitious community initiative designed to unite and empower individuals, small businesses, local government and community groups to reduce their collective plastic footprint and protect the environment together. Driven by inspirational local volunteers, we are building a new and exciting community movement tackling single-use plastics and plastic litter in our villages, towns, cities and rural locations. This highly inclusive initiative, created for all ages and backgrounds, is designed to get the whole community active and do something positive to reduce the amount of plastic in the local environment. We believe that united communities lead to cleaner beaches, streets, parks and riverbanks.
