Chesterfield residents asked to help influence new legislation to address the plastic pollution crisis

Chesterfield single-use plastics campaign group, Plastic Free Chesterfield, is to hold an online meeting to highlight how the Environment Bill, currently going through Parliament, has the opportunity to address the plastic pollution crisis.

The Environment Bill is a piece of legislation aimed at replacing European environmental legislation, including issues around waste and recycling. Campaigners from Plastic Free Chesterfield are calling for the new legislation to include setting targets for the elimination of plastic pollution and bring about an end to the sale, use and production of non-essential single-use plastic products.

The group have invited Siôn Elis Williams, campaign officer at Friends of the Earth, to an online meeting to explain more about the Environment Bill and what actions are needed within it to address the issues of plastics. The meeting is being held on Wednesday 16th September, starting at 7 pm.

Siôn said: “Despite all the publicity and industry initiatives huge quantities of plastic pollution are still pouring into our environment and threatening our wildlife. The government must take decisive action by amending the Environment Bill – currently passing through Parliament – to include legally-binding targets for slashing the levels of plastic pollution created in the UK every year.”

Greg Hewitt, Community Lead at Plastic Free Chesterfield, said: “The Environment Bill provides a once in a generation opportunity to set world-leading legislation that will see a stop to the production of pointless plastics and stop plastic pollution once and for all.”

“The time to turn the tide on this plastic pollution crisis is now. We need to stop the systemic over-production and over-consumption of non-essential single-use, throw-away and polluting plastics which current waste systems simply cannot handle. Instead, we need to make sure that plastics we produce are designed to be reused and refilled as part of a real and effective circular economy.”

Interested attendees to the talk should book on via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/117864994371

People can write to their MP at https://www.sas.org.uk/generation-sea-trash-talk/