A coalition of environmental groups has unveiled a new roadmap to help volunteers to launch clean up groups to take action to tackle plastic pollution in rivers across England, as part of a collaborative initiative called ‘Plastics Action’.
The roadmap sets out twelve steps, including how to set up ‘River Action Groups’ to help communities make positive differences to their local areas by helping to clean up rivers.
Discarded improperly, plastic litter harms the environment and the wildlife that live in rivers. It also threatens human health and affects food and water safety.
The roadmap is part of the collaborative Plastics Action initiative, a three-year project which has just drawn to a close and was funded by the National Lottery Community Fund (with some co-funding from Thames Rivers Trust and Plastics Europe) and led by environmental charity Thames21. Plastics Action aims to increase community clean ups and evidence gathering and bring heightened awareness in communities of the importance of reducing the use and disposal of single-use plastic products.
Collaborating with a diverse group of partners, including local volunteers, regional charities, national NGOs, university academics, and government officials, the project has considered multistakeholder views to address plastic pollution and set out clear guidelines to upscale community action in England.
The news of the launch of the roadmap comes ahead of the final round of negotiations of the UN’s Global Plastic Treaty, scheduled to take place from 25th November – 1st December 2024 in Busan, Korea.
It is hoped that governments across the world will set a legally-binding global agreement to curtail the production and consumption of plastic, especially single-use products, and to set an agreement to incentivise producers to produce plastic items from plastic waste.
A focus on a circular economy and improved behaviours and practices in communities and industry can, alongside policies such as ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ and ‘Deposit Return Schemes’ can help to turn the tide on plastic pollution.
Chris Coode, CEO at Thames21, which has led on the project, said: “It’s great to see this new collaborative roadmap being launched, which we hope will encourage volunteers to form their new community groups to tackle plastic pollution. Plastic litter should have no place in our rivers or natural environment. If we all work together, we can make significant progress in clearing plastic from our rivers.
“No single tool will fix the pervasive issue of plastic pollution in our rivers, so we advocate for multistakeholder action. We need policymakers, manufactures and retailers, brands and the general public on board to tackle this problem.
“We are now seeking new partnerships and funding to continue and expand the project and we are also looking at littering prevention so that we do not just help to ‘mop the floor’, but seek to ‘close the tap’ of plastic and other litter.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Chief Executive of environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy and chair of the Plastics Action Steering Group, added: “If we are to tackle the massive environmental challenges we face then we must work together because no organisation can do it alone.
“There is no doubt we need government action at both a national and an international level but we all have a role to play and this roadmap illustrates that, by working together, we can make a difference and cut the plastic pollution that has such devastating consequences for our aquatic and marine environments.”
Rob Gray, Trustee of Friends of the River Crane Environment (FORCE), said: “As a small West London charity, we have been removing litter from our open spaces for over 20 years. Six years ago, we started to monitor systematically the amounts and types of litter as well as the locations we were collecting it from.
“These data have really helped us to understand our local litter problem, identify the most effective ways of tackling it, and better engage the wider community with the results. We are delighted to have been able to contribute to this roadmap and hope that it helps other local groups to learn from their litter collection work and be more effective in reducing the problem in their local open spaces.”
