Plastic Free Devizes?

I’m guilty, I admit, I think many of us are, driven by a hurtling civilisation, an archaic method of consumer comfort, but 38.5 million plastic bottles are bought in the UK every day, taking hundreds of years to break down, and yet we use it to store products that we consume within minutes. It doesn’t make sense. Sustainable Devizes say “there’s a better way than throwaway.”

I need a big loud label, to spell out the bottle is made from recycled plastics, and I will choose that over another, but is this enough? Only 9% of plastic ever produced globally has actually been recycled.

Me, from a generation dragged unwillingly along to household Tupperware parties as a nipper, to watch my mother replace old metal tins passed down generations in favour of hard plastic containers. A cohort wrapped in clingfilm, disposable plastic bags, and grandmother’s whining ignored; that “we didn’t have this when we were young,” they returned the pop bottle for a penny, put the milk bottle on the doorstep, they took a butter dish to the shop and the shopkeeper plonked a new knob of butter on it.

As my daughter frowns, labels me “gen x,” or wrongly, “boomer,” jumping Greta’s bandwagon and blaming me personally, I try to justify my actions by whimpering “we knew no better.” But we do now; Nan was right all along, and she didn’t even know it, she just done what everyone else did, no difference than me trapped in this pressured, mass-consumer superstore modern era, have we the time and resources for every customer to queue, each grasping a butter dish? Have we the time left to causally pass off the notion our common practises need to change?

The plastic crisis is part of the climate crisis. 99% of plastics are made from fossil fuels. One in every ten barrels of oil is being used to manufacture new plastic. It’s a no-brainer, we need to drastically reduce the amount of plastic we produce. We need to ditch disposable plastic and embrace reusable products wherever possible. We can free where we live from single-use plastic.

Sustainable Devizes is on a mission to help Devizes become a Plastic Free Community, possible? Only if we all rally to change our habits. Talking to local businesses, working with local schools, engaging with the Council and organising community events, such as this one, with soup and cake, to twist my arm!

Sustainable Devizes will be at St Andrew’s Church on Wednesday 3^rd November, presenting a free community film screening of the award-winning 2019 documentary The Story of Plastic. Stating, “plastic pollution is a global crisis, but one that can have local solutions.” Sustainable Devizes invites you to join them, their newly-formed Plastic Free Devizes group, to arrive at 7pm, when a bowl of homemade and plant-based soup and a slice of cake will be served, and the film to start at 7:30.

This screening is timed to coincide with the first week of COP26, so will also give us a chance to discuss our hopes and fears for what that might bring, for those that want to stay for a conversation after the film.

Tickets for the event are free, but booking is required, follow this link, so they know how much soup and cake to make! There will be a small charge (£3.50) for food to cover costs. Donations welcome if you’d like to see more events like this in future. As this is in an indoor event, St Andrew’s would ask that you please wear a facemask (whilst not eating) if you are able.

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3 thoughts on “Plastic Free Devizes?”

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I’m really sorry I missed this! Is it available to watch anywhere? Great article 🙂

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Darren Worrow says:

Nov 28, 2021 at 5:03 pm

Hi Helen, unfortunately the event was cancelled. I believe Sustainable Devizes Tweeted a reply to you, with a link where to watch it; hope you got it?

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