Reader’s letter: Do your bit for the environment in Eastbourne in May with Big Plastic Count

Between May 16 and 22, Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic are running the Big Plastic Count, and members of Greenpeace Eastbourne Group are taking part.

This will be the UK’s biggest ever investigation into household plastic waste, and what really happens to our recycling.

We need to take much faster action to clean up the plastic pollution, which spoils Eastbourne and harms our climate, nature and health.

This year, the government is starting to decide on legal targets to reduce plastic waste. Greenpeace Eastbourne volunteers want them to set a target to reduce single-use plastic by 50 per cent by 2025 and ban dumping our waste onto other countries.

I’m fed up with the amount of plastic I end up with every time I do a supermarket shop.

Why do we need bananas to be wrapped in plastic?

Greenpeace volunteers have been taking action on plastic pollution for years, including handing back single-use plastic to supermarkets.

We, like lots of other Eastbourne residents, are trying to do their bit, and Government, supermarkets and brands need to do theirs to cut plastic too.

The UK produces more plastic waste per person than almost any other country, only the USA is worse. On top of this, plastic production is actually increasing – it’s set to double by 2040.

Supermarkets, brands and the government continue to push recycling as the major solution to the plastic waste crisis, even though we know that our recycling system will never be able to cope with the amount of plastic being produced.

Reduction is the core solution to the global plastics crisis, and to do this, we need to transition to reusable packaging which caters to everyone’s needs.

The Big Plastic Count was founded by Daniel Webb.

After collecting every piece of plastic waste he generated for an entire year, Webb enlisted the help of a scientific researcher to help analyse his waste and develop a unique methodology for calculating his personal plastic footprint.

Schools, community groups, businesses, local residents, sign-up to join us here

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