We are delighted to announce that we have joined Surfers Against Sewage in their Plastic Free Coastlines campaign.
Surfers against Sewage are encouraging businesses to use less plastic with the ultimate goal to make our coastline plastic free.
Tynemouth is the latest town hoping to achieve the ‘Plastic Free’ status with many businesses pledging to reduce or remove as much single use plastics as possible.
Why get involved?
Not only does plastic take hundreds of years to decompose, there is also a huge risk to marine life. As the latest series of Blue Planet highlighted, plastic making its way into the ocean can be catastrophic for marine life.
We have also seen a plastic causing the loss of marine life on a local level, with the highly publicised images of a seal caught in plastic packaging at St Mary’s Light House.
Stories of plastic causing injuries are upsetting, but also highly avoidable. By reducing our use and sensibly disposing of the plastic which we do use we can see the amount of plastic in our seas declining.
What are we doing?
We aim cut our use (and our visitors use) of single use plastic as much as possible. So far we have:
Removed plastic straws and lids from our drinks.
Stopped using plastic milk cartons and replacing them with a more sustainable flask.
We are phasing out plastic sauce sachets, using a pump and paper containers instead.
We are also working with our suppliers to find alternatives to plastic all through the supply chain.
Our Marine Rescue Centre is able to take up to 6 wild seals at a time, some of these have injuries caused by marine plastic. As well as rehabilitating seals, we hope that we can educate our visitors on the direct impact plastic can make to our local wildlife.
What can you do?
There are many things which you can do to cut down on your plastic consumption.
The simplest way is by refusing any single use plastics such as straws and plastic drinks lids. Not only does this reduce consumption, but it also lets companies know that they are not needed.
Be a social hero – There are many campaigns on social media to encourage people to ditch plastic. Check out the #’s #PointlessPlastics, #PlasticFreeCoastlines, #StrawsSuck and join in the conversation. This will raise awareness of the issue and convince more people to ditch single use plastic.