Plastic is clogging our oceans – but now the tide is turning

Now, 52 years on, there seems to be no future in it at all. Everywhere you look there are attempts to make plastic a thing of the past.

The law forcing large shops to charge for plastic carrier bags came into effect four years ago. It has taken an estimated 15 billion bags out of circulation.

Since then more and more anti-plastic measures have been introduced.

And it’s not hard to understand why it’s now public enemy number one.

Worries over what we’re doing to the environment are becoming ever more serious and widespread. Barring the White House there are now few people who still maintain that the climate isn’t changing, or that if it is it isn’t our fault.

Plastic is seen as particularly harmful because only around 10 per cent of it is recycled.

It can take 1,000 years to disintegrate. If William the Conqueror had brought a plastic bag with him to the Battle of Hastings it would still exist.

Much of the time it either ends up in landfill or is washed into the seas and oceans. By 2050 it is predicted that there will be more plastic in the oceans than marine life.

The plastic gets consumed by sea creatures and enters the food chain. There is now plastic in a third of the all the fish we eat in the UK.

David Attenborough’s documentary Blue Planet II brought the reality of it into our living rooms. Since then there has been a marked demand from shoppers for a reduction in plastic. So businesses need to meet that.

Unilever owns brands such as Surf and PG Tips and is responsible for around 700,000 tonnes of new plastic a year. This week it announced plans to slash that figure over the next five years, by using more recycled plastic and finding other alternatives.

The motivation is not just care for the oceans but care for the bottom line. Boss Alan Jope admits it is an attempt to curry favour with younger customers in particular, finding that they are most interested in “the conduct of the companies and the brands that they’re buying”.

Action has been promised closer to home. Northern English supermarket chain Booths, which has stores in Keswick and Penrith, is encouraging customers to bring reusable containers to its fresh food counters and has removed plastic bottles from its cafés.

It is introducing compostable bags for fresh produce and promises “to continue to investigate and implement practical ways to reduce plastic within the business”.

The Penrith and Cockermouth branches of Sainsbury’s have removed single-use plastic produce bags. From now on customers either have to bring their own or pay 30p for a reusable one.

It is one of a number of changes being introduced. Nationwide the firm aims to have cut its use of plastic in half by 2025.

Cumbrian firm Cranstons has four food halls and two butcher’s shops and has always prided itself on having a modest carbon footprint. Most of its supplies don’t clock up many “food miles”.

Pigs, for example, come from Newbiggin, near Penrith, are slaughtered at the abattoir in Wigton and are transported back to Penrith as pork. Most dry goods also come from within the county.

“We have made lots of significant changes over the last 12 months,” says head of marketing Jane Silburn.

Its branches are exempt from charging for plastic bags, since the charge is only compulsory for stores with more than 250 employees, but she says: “We have ceased giving away carrier bags, even though we aren’t obliged to.

“We’ve also moved to paper bags for fruit and veg in our food hall. And we’ve moved from black plastic trays for our meat packs to clear trays, which are easier to recycle. We have launched a loose dry goods area in our main food hall, with no packaging other than a paper bag. And we’ve recently started a ‘bring your own container’ service on our raw butchery counters.”

She promises there is more to come soon.

“We are going to be introducing a paper carrier bag and moving to wooden cutlery on our takeaway counters. Customers will see these before Christmas.”

And as Ms Silburn explains, it’s what people want. “Everyday we get an email about where something can be recycled or other environmental questions.

“A large proportion of our customers are environmentally conscious now, and plastic reduction in particular is a key factor in purchase choices.

“If you asked people five years ago, the environment would have been quite low down on their list of concerns. But at the moment it’s a primary motivation.”

What accounts for the change in the last five years? “David Attenborough’s Blue Planet means plastic waste has entered mainstream consciousness. It’s not a fringe concern any more.”

Many businesses may be working towards cutting plastic, but Angel Lane in Penrith has a zero-waste shop. Another Weigh is owned and run by Zoe Hedges and Chris and Emma Bray, and sells a wide range of loose food and liquids to customers who bring their own containers.

It also stocks toiletries without plastic, such as toothbrushes, nappies, cotton buds and sanitary towels. There is deodorant in cardboard packaging and shampoo that comes in bars, like soap, rather than bottles.

Zoe reckons Penrith was the ideal place for such a shop. “Penrith as a town is somewhere that has started looking at its sustainability. A lot of residents were waiting for something like this.”

Another Weigh opened nine months ago and she adds: “Opening day was absolutely heaving. It was crazy how busy it was. Customers say they are so happy they don’t have to go to the supermarkets. Between us, the fruit and veg shops and the butchers they can do all their shopping in the town. We complement the others well.”

She predicts there will be more zero-waste shops appearing across the country. “People are more aware. David Attenborough did a great job.”

Zoe first became acutely aware herself while volunteering with Kent Wildlife Trust, and seeing close-up the effects our way of life is having on wildlife.

She and her fiancé Ben Carney moved to Cumbria in 2013 and have three children. “We need to be mindful of what we are leaving behind for them.”