Devizes Town Council Pledge on Single-Use Plastics

Devizes Town Councillors voted unanimously to adopt a Single-Use Plastic Policy and appointed Councillor Vanessa Tanner as the Plastic Free Champion for the town, at a planning committee on Tuesday…..

The policy includes measures to reduce the amount of plastic used in the town, starting with the Town Council buildings. Officers and Councillors will work with event organisers, local businesses as well as schools, charities and other organisations to be more sustainable.

A couple of the suggestions are to introduce a reusable Festival Cup, create a Devizes Plastic Pledge as well as presenting awards for reducing plastic use. Councillor Vanessa Tanner said, “plastic is one of the greatest environmental challenges faced worldwide so we are excited to be one of the first towns in Wiltshire to have a plastic policy. We will use it to make our town cleaner and greener.”

On the festival cup idea I asked Vanessa if this was just for DOCA events, or would they encourage other event organisers in town to adopt the cup, albeit both the DOCA-Stealth Brewery Festival of Winter Ales and the CAMRA Beer and Cider festival use glass. “That’s my plan,” she told us, “we provide them with the cups so their beverage providers can use them. The details need ironing but the agreement to get the cups is there in principle.”

This is great news for our town’s events, but is there a motion to tackle plastic usage from a more daily basis, such as the takeaways, I asked. “Yes,” Vanessa replied, “I’m hoping to work with local businesses to reduce plastic. They should be anyway, Government legislation which started on the 1st of October outlaws many plastic serve-ware items.”

Businesses can be fined for continuing to use single-use plastics, but there are exemptions, if you are supplying them to another business, or the items are packaging pre-filled at point of sale, such as salad bowls or ready meals packaged in a tray, a plate filled at the counter of a takeaway or a tray used to deliver food. This causes me to wonder if the ban goes far enough, it seems there’s a number of loopholes.

An opportunity to plug my favourite Chinese takeaway, Ocean City, I asked them if they can reuse the containers should customers return them. Unfortunately they said not for food, but they reuse them for coins with their delivery drivers. Thankfully they do, however, use recycled plastic, which is great because I get through them! You can reuse them at home, as we do, or if you accumulate too many, they are recyclable using your blue bin, according to Wiltshire Council. I guess it is up to all of us to check the packaging you receive from local businesses is recycled, as it is with Ocean City; damn, I fancy some sweet & sour chicken now!

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