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To Members of the Petition Committee:
Dear Assembly member,
We would like to strongly welcome the Ministers commitment to “commission KWT to produce a research paper specifically on polystyrene litter and its effect on the environment along with recommendations for further interventions”.
We also support the Welsh Governments commitment to tackling litter and would especially encourage its stated aim of preventing litter from occurring in the first place.
We believe that our petition would support such a policy of litter prevention. In fact, as stated in the Ministers letter, many of the multi-national fast food businesses have already converted to bio-degradable food and drink container alternatives, so why not encourage the remaining smaller but more numerous fast food outlets to also convert to bio-degradable alternatives as soon as possible?
We applaud the Welsh Governments enlightened policy of charging for single use plastic bags. This has made a dramatic difference to the cleanliness of our towns, countryside and beaches.
We would like to see a similar policy of charging for single use polystyrene fast food and drinks cartons. Such a policy would encourage smaller traders to convert to cardboard/cornstarch alternatives and help reduce the blight of polystyrene entering our environment.
Finally, we have no doubt that fast food polystyrene packaging will eventually become a practice of the past. We hope the Welsh Government will have the foresight to lead such a change instead of following in the footsteps of others!
Thank you for your consideration of this vital issue,
Rob Curtis
Chairman of Friends of Barry Beaches
PS ...There is an open invitation for any of your AM’s to join our volunteers at any of our monthly beach litter picks.
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Dear Alun,
I am the Chairman of a voluntary group which carries out monthly voluntary litter picks at one of Barry’s five main beaches (recycling as much as we can in the process). We have the support of Keep Wales Tidy and regularly attract 20 to 30 volunteers spending an hour removing rubbish. Over the last four years we have removed hundreds of bags of litter/rubbish from our beach environment, thus helping to protect our marine wildlife.
One of the most numerous items of litter we remove is items of polystyrene, especially single use polystyrene food and drink cartons. These items remain in our environment for hundreds of years while cardboard/cornstarch alternatives would biodegrade within a matter of weeks/months.
In fact, many of the major food chains have already switched their supplies to biodegradable alternatives (MacDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, etc.)
We believe that the Welsh Government helped to lead the way in the UK by introducing a 5p charge on single use carrier bags. By banning or even placing a charge/tax on these polystyrene single use food containers, the Welsh Government could once again show their strong commitment to protecting our beautiful Welsh environment.
We submitted a 295 online petition earlier this year and I have also raised a further “written” 232 signature petition which I have enclosed. I now understand that the National Assembly petitions committee are contacting you to “seeking his views on the petition”. I know the Polystyrene carton manufacturers will do their best to protect their profits but they do not seem concerned about the cost to both Councils and the environment.
I have no doubt that as a society we will move away from the madness of polystyrene single use cartons, I just hope Wales makes that commitment sooner rather than later. I hope you will decide to take positive action on this issue in order to stop the blight of polystyrene food and drinks cartons littering our Welsh streets, countryside and beaches?
If you would like further information then please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks
Cllr Rob Curtis
P.S. If you would like to volunteer at one of our many beach cleans then please just choose a date from the attached list and we would be happy to welcome you.