Newsletter issue 21

14th November 2024

Plastic Free Communities

Plastic Free Swindon has been part of Friends of the Earth (FoE) since its inception. This was because our campaign launched as part of the now defunct Swindon Climate Action Network. FoE moved their focus away from plastic, partly because other large environmental organisations such as City to Sea, Greenpeace and Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) focused on it. Hence we have had little in the way of support from FoE, so the decision has been made to leave. Thanks to FoE.

New PFS logo as part of SAS

We have signed up for Surfers Against Sewage's Plastic Free Communities campaign. It is well structured with 5 key objectives which are further sub-divided. We are hopeful that having clear, defined goals, and being part of a nationwide campaign, will help us on our mission and encourage people to get involved. According to SAS, the campaign often acts as a springboard for further community efforts. SAS offer all kinds of support such as insurance, leaflets and posters, a forum and resources for co-ordinators, a campaign logo... Such support is welcome because campaigning on plastic pollution is hard work!!

Work on the Plastic Free Communities campaign will begin next year.

Swindon Community Computing

We've recently joined the Get Connected Swindon network, which is run by SBC. At the heart of this network is digital inclusion; the aspiration to support and empower people, to enable access and provide support for devices and services. Inclusion is a key aspect of equality.

Often proprietary / non-free software:

  • Is exclusive, furthering inequality.
  • Diminishes diversity.
  • Creates imbalance of power.
  • Restricts users and developers.
  • Threatens security and privacy.
  • Is opaque; full functionality may not be known to users.
  • Is a key factor in waste and pollution. The article "Proprietary Software is Pollution" makes this case well. It is written by Dr Andy Farnell, author of Digital Vegan.

Important then to understand the benefits of using free / libre software and decentralised services. It is anathema to non-free software and the oppressive model created by Big Tech. Lets stop supporting our own oppression and the destruction of our planet!

The GNU and Linux mascots
GNU and Linux (free / libre OS) mascots
Image credit

I recently contacted SBC leader Jim Robbins regarding the use of non-free software and services in Swindon, making the case for free / libre software and asking what SBC will do to facilitate it. Awaiting response.

We were part of a cost of living (aka gross inequality) event at the Swindon Hub in September. Good to be part of and to engage with other organisations which support people during these difficult times. We spoke with BBC Wiltshire Radio about our work.

Swindon Community Computing sessions are on Thursdays 2-5pm and Fridays 10am-12pm at the Swindon Hub.

Keep Swindon Tidy

Bridgemead Sainsbury's

Thank you to Sainsbury's for working with us to try and deal with issues contributing to the littering / pollution at Bridgemead:

  • They trialled moving the blue single-use plastic gloves they supply for customers inside the petrol station. However, customers complained. This depicts some of the cultural challenge which arises from a stressed out system of convience. It may be convenient, but at what cost? Instead of using single-use plastic gloves, how about bringing our own reusable gloves, and washing them as necessary? A letter has been sent to the Swindon Advertiser urging local motorists to be considerate of this and act accordingly.
  • They now regularly litter pick around their store.
  • They "are in the process of making a request to the local council to have one [a bin] installed".
Rodbourne

After finishing Bridgemead, we made our way on to Rodbourne. One of our regular pickers lives there, so we like to support each other. Backsies were especially bad in places. Over a few weeks, we made a huge difference to the area. A bit more work to do in Rodbourne. More on that hopefully in the next newsletter.

Oasis

Keep Swindon Tidy often experience litter and fly-tipping which emanate from businesses which don't take responsibility and look after the land around their premises. This has negative repurcussions for local communities, affecting how an area is treated, and what kind of activities will go on there.

Seven Capital's poor treatment of the Oasis buildings and site are a good example. It's one reason why we've continued, as a plastic-free campaign, to support the Save the Oasis Swindon (SOS) campaign. Leaked plans for the Oasis have raised concerns about the development: that it will look oppressive, will not serve local needs, and that leisure provisions are being reduced. Open spaces campaigner Josie Lewis has written to Jim Robbins, the leader of SBC, to make the case that the leaked proposals are unlawful for various reasons and that councillors should be careful not to break the law.

Questions for SBC

We attended the full council meeting in September. Regarding Keep Swindon Tidy, we asked:

  • Community litter wardens are brill. Can they give out pouches for safe disposal of fag butts?
    We are following up on this.
  • Small shops issue very flimsy plastic bags. Should they be charged for?
    They need to be banned, actually! The answer is yes, bags should be charge for in most instances. This is not happening in practise. We previously made enquiries with government ministers and submitted an FOI request to SBC. It was confirmed that this policy is not actively policed.
  • Police can fine if photo sent them of car parked on pavement. Is it the same for someone fly-tipping?
    Yes.
  • When will the joint committee to deal with litter / fly-tipping and waste issues be set up?
    As soon as reasonably possible.

Education

Events

Even with an absent co-ordinator, we still maintained a presence at various events over the summer. Thank you Ruth and Plastic Free Swindon mascot, Ethel.

Since then we've attended the freshers' events at both Swindon New College campuses and Arval's sustainability day. Both were excellent with really good engagement.

On message

Sustainable Highworth seem to do some great work. However their focus on plastic 'recycling' is of concern. Plastic 'recycling' efforts, whilst commendable, are highly polluting, continuing a sick system of production, and so can only be a short term endeavour. To effectively deal with plastic pollution, as I very much hope that you're aware, we need to reduce plastic production. Hence I wrote to them but haven't heard back. If you know of, or are part of this group, please get in touch.

The Birds and Bees radio show

A couple of pieces of note on plastic pollution:

  • The Pacific trade deal:
    Why are the Labour government allowing ISDS / corporate courts when they were against them whilst in opposition?
  • Plastic Free July:
    Tips from Ruth on reducing plastic use.

Growing South Swindon Community

Having lost Jess Halsall, one of our founding members with enormous expertise and enthusiasm for growing projects, it left 2 over-stretched organisers with a lack of time and capacity struggling to run projects. Hence we decided to cut back. We gave up our community plot at the local allotment and converted the bean patch into a herb garden, as it's easier to maintain: rosemary, lavender, sage, oregano and many more... Moving forward, I hope that more local people will value this work enough to get involved.

New herb garden

Refill Swindon

I remember reading that for a sperm to successfully fertilise an egg, it was the equivalent of a human swimming the English channel through treacle. This is sometimes how it feels to campaign. We have aspirations for Refill in Swindon but making it happen has been extraordinarily difficult so far! Our main aspirations are:

  • For a water fountain in the town centre. We continue to wait for the under-funded, under-resourced SBC to respond to us on this. I even spoke at a recent full council meeting to try and move this forwards. Patience is most definitely a virtue!!
  • To get reuse happening at major events. Our 2 targets are Old Town Festival, and Swindon and Wiltshire Pride.

The promotion of Refill is one of our main foci at events. The scheme can and does have a big impact.

Government

EPR and DRS

We have been waiting years for progress on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). These 2 legislative measures, if enacted well, could greatly reduce plastic pollution. With the new government in place, Councillor Jane Milner-Barry wrote to South Swindon MP, Heidi Alexander, asking for information on both. She sent back the following response from DEFRA.

Here are Jane's comments on DEFRA's reply:

It is encouraging to hear that the Government is setting up a Circular Economy Taskforce. However the taskforce is to consist of two academics, two representatives of local government, two members of non-governmental organisations and NINE representatives of industry and trade associations. So, membership is heavily weighted towards the views of industry and trade associations. One might fear that some trade associations think they are still living in the era of “make it, use it and throw it away”. I hope that the Taskforce will come up with the radical vision for the future of the economy that the country needs.

I am very glad that the Labour Government is committed to delivering the Deposit and Return Scheme in 2027. However, it is a great shame that the DRS in England will not include glass jars and bottles, as it will in Wales. I imagine this is due to industry pressure (see above). Glass containers survive from Roman times and if there is any reason why a jam-jar should not be reused indefinitely, like a glass milk bottle, saving all the energy required to make a new one, I cannot think of it.

I am sure that Local Authorities (LAs) will also welcome the news that the revised Producer Responsibility Obligations are to become law this year as LAs desperately need some help with the huge financial burden of dealing with waste.

Pacific trade deal

The Labour government were against ISDS including corporate courts when in opposition yet the mechanism remains included in the upcoming Pacific trade deal. Free trade deals are often used to sell the public out to Big Business by removing human rights, diminishing labour pay and conditions, removing environmental protections... ISDS and corporate courts remove access to justice. There's further info, including a petition, on the Global Justice Now website. There's discussion on this for the Birds and Bees radio show.

We wrote to both local MPs to express concerns and ask for clarification of the government's position. South Swindon MP Heidi Alexander responded to say that she "will contact ministerial colleagues in the Department for Business and Trade about the matter you have raised" and come back to us. She hasn't yet done that. We recommend contacting your local MP to ask for ISDS, including corporate courts, to be removed from this and other trade deals.

End incineration

UKWIN, Greenpeace and around 50 other organisations co-signed a letter to the new Labour government welcoming the their pronounced aspiration to create a circular, zero waste economy and asking for an end to new incineration capacity. Read the full letter.

Global Plastics Treaty INC-5

The final session to decide the global plastic treaty, INC-5, is to take place in Korea in from 25th November to 1st December 2024. As usual, corporations with vested interests are working to weaken legislation. Recognising this, Greempeace have produced this simple action to contact local MPs asking for a strong global plastics treaty. Please sign and share.

Climate and Nature (CAN) Bill

With regards to plastic pollution, the CAN Bill seeks to enshrine in law the reduction of the UK's environmental and health impacts from (plastic) pollution, including overseas!

SBC supports the CAN Bill. According to Zero Hour, North Swindon MP Will Stone supports the Bill. However South Swindon MP Heidi Alexander has not pledged to support the bill. We've written to Heidi to confirm whether or not this is true, and ask for more information. Awaiting response. Zerohour have this easy action to ask Heidi to support and progress the CAN Bill. The Second reading, which includes debate and a vote, takes place on 24th January 2025.

Miscelleneous news

Supermarkets burning plastic = recycling?

We previously mentioned the Bloomsbery report on Tesco's soft plastics take-back scheme. 2 out of 3 trackers from London stores ended up at an incinerator in Turkey via Poland. Under UK law, this is considered recycling.

Everyday Plastic replicated this experiment on a larger scale. They targeted Tesco and Sainsbury's soft plastics take-back schemes. Of the trackers that made it to end destinations, 70% went to incinerators. Again, in the UK, this is considered to be recycling.

Kids fly a Tesco carrier bag from a flag pole and pay homage
Banksy: "Very Little Helps"
Image credit

In response, the Guardian published a misleading article entitled "Outraged that some plastic you send for recycling ends up being burned? Don’t be" In my opinion, it is one of the worst articles I've read on plastic pollution:

  • '...supermarkets wanted to make our lives simple.'
    Did they? Or did they fail to mention the complexity, futility, and outcomes of soft plastic 'recycling' to mislead customers in order to keep their custom?
  • 'The valuable, high-quality material they are looking for (uncontaminated mono-material)'
    Recycled plastic is of little value. It requires a mix with virgin plastics. The process of 'recycling' uncontaminated mono-material requires transport (fuel, parts etc.), energy, and is highly polluting (c. 75 billion microplastics per m³ of wastewater).
  • 'But it is understandable that the messaging usually takes the form of “please bring your plastic here” rather than the perhaps more truthful (albeit depressing) “we burn some of this”.'
    There is no perhaps about it. It's important for the public to understand that plastic 'recycling' is highly complex and not economically viable, part of an unsustainable, unhealthy system of production. Right understanding enables right action.
  • 'So where is the plastic sorted? Often in other countries where sorting by hand is cheaper.'
    Regardless of the environmental or health impacts.
  • 'This makes plastic one of the most environmentally damaging materials: its abundance and low cost lead people to discard it readily, without a care for the environmental consequences.'
    That includes supermarkets. The responsibility is placed solely with consumers, a common tactic of Big Plastic and its advocates.
  • 'I find pubs and restaurants more willing to offer paper straws to customers – far more than they were with plastic straws.'
    Where's evidence for this on a wider scale?
  • 'The result is potentially more waste than before. Let us not pretend that simply using an alternative to plastic is a panacea.'
    Packaging from other materials does have environmental impacts. However, we know that plastic production is plastic pollution, that there is no good way to deal with plastic once made. Hence we need to reduce plastic production and look for solutions. Local production, which could make huge differences to social and environmental impacts including plastic pollution, is not mentioned.
  • 'So how do we ensure that less soft plastic ends up in an incinerator? Well, we need to rebalance the economics...' 'This would ensure that soft plastic is collected in significant volumes, drive innovation and investment into the UK recycling system, and ultimately increase the value of soft plastic to the waste companies dealing with it.'
    Plastic 'recycling' is again offered up as a solution to the problem caused by a system which incorporates plastic 'recycling'. This has happened time and again over the decades leading us to the awful and still increasing levels of plastic pollution. We need genuine solutions: reduction of plastic production, reuse, refill... Supporting local, independent, and organic would go a good way towards these ends. That would diminish the power, profit, and market-share of supermarkets. None of this is mentioned.
  • Regardless of whether it is destined to be incinerated for energy, reformed into a park bench or turned into a new piece of packaging, I will continue to stuff it in a bread bag each week and take it to my local supermarket. All in the knowledge that collecting this plastic and sending it off somewhere useful is far better than landfill.'
    Plastic is more likely to be incinerated than put in landfill. It is a dirty source of energy with various detrimental facets. Through the supermarkets' soft plastic take-back schemes, plastic travels long distances to be burned. Most soft plastics are not recycled. So why encourage customers to keep buying products with plastic packaging that is not commonly recycled? A solution would be to buy another product with better or no packaging.

TLDR: Supermarkets, convenient and cheap but unsustainable and terrible for society, don't shop at them!! That's my conclusion. Here's a related song you might enjoy.

Plastics in the human brain

It has been confirmed that plastic is entering the human brain through our noses. In fish we know that this causes brain damage. In humans we know that phthalates, for instance, can cause severe autism. So this is troubling news, but hardly surprising considering the levels of plastic pollution.

Legislation suggested by health scientists

Some scientists concerned with health produced their version of a global plastics treaty. Some genuine solutions in there, perhaps due to a lack of interference by lobbyists.

Plastic in tins

I recently contacted Essential Trading regarding the plastic found in the lining of tins of, in this case, tomatoes. The information provided by Essential Trading provides further evidence that unpackaged wholefoods are healthier than packaged, processed foods.

Challenging Big Plastic's lie

"California’s lawsuit against Exxon is about ending the lie that most plastic is recyclable..." Read more. Will the UK follow suit?

More?

Further articles and information on plastic pollution can be found in our library, which is sorted by date and category.

Thanks to all our volunteers!!

That's all for this edition. Thanks for reading, and please give this a share.