As part of his Green Spaces Campaign, this week, Jeremy Hunt MP has written to the Chief Executives of all the supermarket chains in South West Surrey urging them to take more action against single-use plastics. Whilst we are all pleased that the Government has announced a far-reaching ban on single-use plastics in England, he believes more can be done locally to tackle this issue.
One of Jeremy Hunt’s four key aims of his campaign has been to reduce the prevalence of single-use plastics which are terrible for both the climate and the environment. It can take up to 450 years for a plastic water bottle to decompose in a landfill site, but he urges that with “community action we can reduce the use of single-use plastics and recycle any we do use.” Having surveyed his constituents, more than 1700 joined his request to the supermarkets to increase recycling availability for single-use plastics. Indeed, more than 90% of responses to his survey support this request.
In South West Surrey the Liberal Democrat-led Waverley Borough Council has abandoned its target to reduce residual waste by 15% and they refuse to provide an update on new plans. Therefore, Jeremy wrote to the Chief Executives to ask whether their locations have the right type of bins – namely those with both litter and mixed recycling options, as well as what further actions they are taking to ensure that we can recycle as much as possible.
