♫ 12 people went to mow... ♫
3rd May 2021...went to mow a meadow. Sadly there was litter everywhere, which was then chopped into small pieces. Just to be clear, that last section's not part of the song. Serrated aluminium cans and broken glass are potentially lethal for humans and other animals. We often hear complaints about such litter from dog walkers. Other litter such as paper and plastic gets chopped into tiny little bits. This makes the job of litter picking a LOT harder!
Looking for solutions, I approached my local parish council to ask if we could co-ordinate litter picking before areas are mowed. Large areas of land are mowed regularly from spring to autumn. Logistically, it would take a lot of people and be very difficult to co-ordinate, as areas need to be cut in an ad-hoc manner, due to weather considerations.
So what are the solutions?
- We need to stop littering from happening. That can be cultural, through education and encouraging people to use bins and recycling. We are working hard to make such changes.
- We need for products to come without unnecessary packaging. Government legislation urgently required.
- Move back to local means of production and supply.
- Design waste out of the system / zero waste.
Change the food system!
Thanks to Moya Pinson for sending us so many photos, including the one below. Plastic packaged apples... Why do we need to package apples? If they grow near us, we can pick them from the trees without the need for any packaging. Instead we transport food across the world. This is unnecessary, destructive and polluting. It is why a third of all food grown around the world is wasted. And it's connected to oppression / poverty / inequality. To deal with plastic pollution, we must deal with the broken global food system. This is why Plastic Free Swindon support local, independent, organic and equality.
Blog by Ben Bell