Buxton awarded plastic free community status after drive to eliminate waste

Buxton is the first town in the High Peak and the 164th in the UK to be given ‘plastic free community’ status by the marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS).

Town crier Bill Weston was presented with the certificate during an event at the Pump Room on Wednesday, June 21, in recognition for the efforts of more than 50 organisations including businesses, schools, community groups and High Peak Borough Council, each of which cut at least three forms of single-use plastic from their operations.

Jean Ball, a spokesperson for campaign leaders Transition Buxton, said: “Receiving the award is not the end of the journey. The plastic champions who attended the celebration all took away next steps leaflets and were urged to recruit new businesses and community groups, and to encourage their members to take individual action to reduce their own single use plastic.

“We all need to continue our efforts to keep single use plastic out of the natural environment. Less than nine per cent of plastic is currently recycled in the UK, 50 per cent is designed to be used just once and 10million tons reaches the oceans every year.”

She added: “Less pollution, less use of finite resources, and less emissions are good for everyone, and everyone needs to make an effort.”

One notable example of action taken to reduce plastic waste came from Buxton Community School, where a group of green-thinking students estimated that 1million single use bottles were used and thrown away in the school each year.

With support from the staff, caterers, and a small grant, the school now has water fountains, and no plastic bottles are sold or used in the school.

Transition Buxton, an apolitical community interest company run by volunteers, plans to continue supporting partners across the town to reduce their environmental footprint, following the SAS toolkit when it comes to plastics.

The initiative complements other Transition resilience such as a repair café, the dispersed community orchard, domestic energy assessments, and soon a Library of Things for borrowing occasional-use household equipment.

Any new groups interested in being part of the change can find out more at www.transitionbuxton.co.uk or via email to [email protected].

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