Advice Plastic Free Councils

As a council you have a huge role to play in Plastic Free Communities. You will probably have several Community Leads in your area and your role is to support them where you can.

How do you do this?

• Support plastic free initiatives and the community groups working on them in your area.
• Work with Plastic Free Community leaders on the motion or resolution supporting Plastic Free Communities.
• Liaise with your community leaders to facilitate and promote the campaign locally.
• Encourage schools, businesses, community groups and individuals to get involved.

But most of all…

• Demonstrate leadership and set up a working group to examine the options available to reduce avoidable single-use plastic
• Perform a complete audit of avoidable, single-use plastic items used across council owned buildings and facilities.
• Develop a plastics strategy with specific objectives for eliminating avoidable single-use plastics. Link this to environmental policy, waste strategy and sustainable procurement policies where appropriate.
• Ensure appropriate recycling routes are available to capture plastic.
• Enable reuse and refill schemes to replace single-use plastic consumption.
• Consider how you can promote the reduction of single-use plastics across the council area and involve collection and waste disposal authorities in this process.

If you want to achieve status for your county or city, 70% of major towns, districts or boroughs should have achieved Plastic Free Community status with the rest working towards it.