Government Business

NEW RELEASE:
GOVERNMENT BUSINESS 25.03

Local action on plastics

Devon County Council has pledged to phase out its use of the most polluting single-use plastic products within two years.

As Keep Britain Tidy explain in our waste management feature on page 29, councils across the UK are not just battling to keep our cities, towns and villages clean, but are also fighting to stop that same litter getting into our oceans.

Devon County Council’s ‘Plastics Strategy’ sets out how various single-use plastic food and beverage packaging and tableware will be removed from council work locations by 2020 and how the authority will use its position and responsibility to raise awareness of the issues surrounding single-use plastics and encourage and support collective action across the region.

While removing plastic is important, something which the Houses of Parliament has also been publicising over the last few weeks, it is imperative that more local authorities carefully and responsibly use their positions to influence recycling and litter habits in their communities. By focusing on packaging and consumption first, we may be on the right path to cleaning our coastlines and streets.

This issue also includes some great commentary on another issue which is dominating central government thoughts lately - air quality. Our contributions from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (page 17) and Sustrans (page 21) both highlight how the dominance of the car must be challenged and how local authorities must be more incentivised and financially backed to push through change. As the Client Earth court case has proven, the government is still not doing enough on the matter.

Michael Lyons, editor