The Government wants to eradicate single-use plastic within 25 years.
But it’s going to be a monumental task, given the amount we all currently use.
For example, the pile of single-use plastic (pictured here on my dining room table) was collected in less than a week from a household of just two people and two hungry cats (and I didn’t include the many plastic cat food pouches - on hygiene grounds).
Some of this plastic carries a recycling logo, but is nevertheless destined for the incinerator. Only plastic bottles (but not their caps) are recycled by most councils, including Kirklees. And recent figures revealed by the Green Party show that England is about to reach the point where more rubbish is burned than recycled.
Take a ramble around any of West Yorkshire’s many beauty spots and it’s clear that plastic pollution is spreading. I walked the scenic Salter Hebble canal towpath from Sowerby Bridge to Elland recently and passed countless pieces and bags of plastic rubbish. As there are two council tips nearby, free for domestic users, such wanton littering speaks of thoughtlessness at best and criminal selfishness at worst.
But what can we do as concerned individuals? Is recycling enough? Two businesses in Huddersfield are leading by example.
Jake Walker, a young entrepreneur from Skelmanthorpe, believes we should be turning our backs on plastic and looking for alternatives. But it will take a sea change in attitudes, as he’s well aware. He’s so dedicated to the idea of sustainable living that he’s set up a small business, Zero Yorkshire Ltd, selling things like bamboo toothbrushes with castor oil bristles, solid shampoos and conditioners, re-usable make-up wipes, stainless steel straws, beeswax wraps as a clingfilm substitute, and coconut fibre pan scrubs. He travels the region’s markets (including Holmfirth on Saturdays and Hebden Bridge on Thursdays) and has just started a weekly pop up shop at Huddersfield’s vegan restaurant, the Peppercorn Cafe in Trinity Street, on Wednesdays.
While there’s been a largely positive response to what he’s doing, Jake says he is occasionally asked why anyone would spend several pounds on a single bamboo toothbrush when they can go to a pound shop and get a plastic equivalent at a fraction of the price. “But that’s not the point,” he says. “It’s trying to be more environmentally aware. Most of my products are compostable and the majority are vegan and sourced from UK manufacturers. They’re wrapped in paper, cardboard, metal and glass – all materials that are easily recycled.”
Jake says the idea for his no-plastics business came from when he and his wife Bryony lived in Dubai, where he was a finance clerk. “I’ve always been passionate about being responsible and sustainable, but in Dubai it was absolutely impossible. There’s limited recycling and nobody cares. We had to walk to a hotel to use their recycling facilities because there was nowhere else. We started looking for shampoo and conditioning bars and bamboo toothbrushes.”
His long-term business plan is to open a zero waste food shop, selling organic dried food that would be dispensed loose in paper bags or decanted into re-usable containers brought in by shoppers.
It’s a small beginning, but if we’re serious about reducing waste plastic then more of us need to adopt Jake’s attitude towards sustainable living. And more businesses need to get on board – following the example of another Huddersfield-based enterprise that takes recycling extremely seriously.
The Titanic Spa in Linthwaite was founded as an ‘eco-spa’ and lives up to its name by having solar panels to provide power and its own borehole for water. But it’s environmental credentials don’t stop there.
As managing director Warrick Burton explains, the spa uses carbon and ultra-violet to treat its water supply, negating the need for chemicals; buys from local food suppliers to cut down on food miles; has super-insulating triple-glazed glass to save energy; has its own in-house laundry that uses a cold water washing system, and has installed electric car charging points that draw power from the building’s solar panels.
“We use paper bags, paper cone cups and biodegradeable straws, which are almost the same price as plastic straws – so there’s no excuse for other businesses not to do the same,” added Warrick. “We have refused to take plastic bags from our suppliers and challenged them to come up with alternatives. We only use recycled paper. To be honest, most businesses could do this with very little extra cost.”
It was a project at the spa earlier in the year, however, that revealed the full extent of other people’s environmental thoughtlessness. A team from the spa joined volunteers from Natural Kirklees’ Environmental Alliance and Huddersfield pharmaceutical company Thornton & Ross to clear the neighbouring Lowestwood Pond. They found more than 500 plastic bottles among bags of waste.
Stunned by the volume of plastic found in the pond the team at Titanic Spa decided to activate their own anti-plastic initiative with immediate effect.
“People are just chucking rubbish out of cars and as they go along, thinking ‘it’s not my problem’,” said Warrick. “We were horrified by what we found.”
The spa uses a private recycling company to tackle its waste. The process of sorting and hand-picking waste materials is time consuming, Warrick admits, but using such a facility means that more can be recycled.
While Kirklees Council does have a waste recycling operation, with bottle banks at key locations and doorstep collections, it does require individuals to understand what can and can’t be recycled. It’s no good, for example, putting plastic bottles with caps or pump dispensers attached into recycling bins, as the harder plastic of the tops can’t currently be recycled. For a full list of what can be recycled visit www.kirklees.gov.uk/wastesites for details of where to dispose of items and which materials can be put into your green bin.
