RECENTLY, a national newspaper (The Guardian, August 4) published a very upsetting photograph of plastic bottles heaped on Pembrey Sands.
The picture illustrated a report on the Green Alliance, who are calling for a UK-wide deposit scheme for all plastic food and drink bottles – similar to what older readers will remember, a system where you get money back on empty pop bottles. Such schemes have already been proven to reduce plastic bottle littering in many other countries.
We all know that plastic pollution in the sea causes serious environmental damage; more pragmatically, plastic rubbish on west Wales beaches is very bad news for our tourist industry. Australian research suggests that drinks bottles cause one third of all plastic marine pollution, therefore a deposit scheme should deliver a very welcome improvement.
Wales went ahead of England and rolled out a stricter, more inclusive, and therefore much more successful carrier bag charging scheme; surely we would all be right behind the Welsh Government if they got straight to work on a plastic bottle deposit scheme?
ELEANOR CLEGG
On behalf of Pembrokeshire Friends of the Earth
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