Exeter Labour Party supports Plastic Free Exeter’s vision of a city free from single use plastics.

Exeter Labour spokesperson Councillor Ollie Pearson said; “We have already supported initiatives, by Keep Britain Tidy’s BeachCare programme and Plastic Free Exeter, to collect discarded plastics and recycle them at Exeter City Council’s Materials Reclamation Facility (MRF).”

“We have also started looking at ways to end the use of single use plastics by Exeter City Council and will support the motion to be debated at the Council meeting on Tuesday 24th April.”

The motion, which will be debated by councillors, states

Exeter City Council notes:-

1. according to recent research, eight million metric tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the world’s oceans each year, endangering marine life;

2. there is also a growing understanding of the risks posed to human health by toxic chemicals present in plastics;

3. the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that by 2050 the weight of plastic in the oceans will exceed that of fish.

Exeter City Council resolves to:-

1. make Exeter City Council a ‘single-use-plastic-free’ authority by the end of 2018, including an end to the purchase and procurement of SUPs through the ECC supply chain;

2. end the sale and provision of SUP products, such as bottles, cups, cutlery and drinking straws, in council buildings;

3. investigate the possibility of requiring pop-up food and drink vendors at council events to avoid SUPs as a condition of their contract;

4. work with tenants and operators in commercial properties owned by Exeter City Council to support the phasing out of SUP cups, bottles, cutlery and straws and  re-usable and affordable food containers are available for sale in public markets;

5. work with festivals organisers to create policy in which single-use ‘disposable’ plastic cups are replaced at all city festivals with reusable or deposit scheme cups. Ensuring this ultimately becomes a condition for obtaining a licence for large scale events.

Exeter Labour Party is committed to keeping our promises. To make sure we can achieve our goal we will propose a minor amendment, to replace:

“1. make Exeter City Council a ‘single-use-plastic-free’ authority by the end of 2018, including an end to the purchase and procurement of SUPs through the ECC supply chain”

with

“1. phase out the use of SUPs by ECC and its suppliers by the end of 2018, and ensure that any SUPs still in use because of existing contracts or necessity have a definite end date for their use”