Devizes Town Councillors have unanimously voted to adopt a Single-Use Plastic Policy and appointed Councillor Vanessa Tanner as the Council’s Plastic Free Champion.
The new policy has been adopted in the Council’s first steps to reduce the amount of single-use plastic used in the town, starting with the Town Council buildings. The Plastic Free Champion will work with event organisers, local businesses as well as schools, charities and other organisations to encourage them to think about the amount of single-use plastic they use and what they can do to reduce it.
At the Council meeting where the policy was agreed, Councillor Tanner suggested the idea of introducing a reusable Festival Cup at many of the Town Community events, where a deposit will be paid for a shatterproof beaker that can be used instead of single-use disposable cups. Other suggestions put forward are the creation of a local “Plastic Free Pledge” as well as presenting awards for organisations that demonstrate sustained reductions in their plastic use.
Councillor Vanessa Tanner said, “The dumping of waste plastic is one of the greatest environmental challenges faced worldwide. I am delighted that the Council has agreed to adopt this “Single-Use Plastic Policy” making Devizes one of the first towns in Wiltshire to have a plastic reduction policy. This policy will be one of the many emerging initiatives that will support our ambitions to make the town cleaner and more sustainable for our future generations”.