Torridge District Council Staff support the Big Plastic Count 2024
Staff at Torridge District Council recently took part in the 'Big Plastic Count' which this year ran from the 11th to the 17th March.
The Big Plastic Count is the UK's biggest investigation into household waste and aims to highlight the urgency and scale of the plastic problem and enable people to play their part in tackling the plastic crisis. Organised by Greenpeace UK and Everyday Plastic households and businesses across the country were asked to count their plastic waste for one week and submit the results online.
Torridge District Council, which employs 232 people at its offices at Riverbank House Bideford and across the region recycled 307 bits of plastic that week, mainly made up from drinks bottles, fruit and veg trays and various pots and lids. Over a year that's equivalent to a mountain of 15,964 pieces of plastic! The Council takes part in the event every year, not only to create awareness amongst its employees, but also to contribute vital data that the organisers use to present to decision-makers in government and business. This year, it's hoped that the results will be fed into the UN negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty, with an ambition for this to be completed by the end of 2024.
As an organisation, Torridge District Council collects around 600 tonnes in plastic waste per year which is then sent for reprocessing and recycling. However, mounting evidence suggests that recycling alone will not solve the problem or be enough to prevent the ongoing harm to the planet from ever increasing volumes of plastic.
Councillor Chris Leather - Lead Member for Waste and Recycling at Torridge said:
"As an organisation we support any initiative to raise awareness of the scale of the plastic problem and promote change for the better. Whilst we do what we can in terms of recycling as much plastic waste as possible, we all have a role and duty to try and reduce what we use. We hope that by taking part in this year's events this has not only been a reminder for our staff, but also that our data might be used to help make a positive contribution in wider international initiatives."
For more information on recycling in Torridge click here: https://www.torridge.gov.uk/recycling
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