Plastic Free Shaftesbury
We joined the Plastic Free Communities network formed by Surfers Against Sewage, aiming to tackle single-use plastics in Shaftesbury.
You can read more about this here:
We gained support from Shaftesbury town council and arranged for Marten Gregory, team leader for the recycling team at Dorset Council to give a presentation in the town in March 2020. (See this blog post for details https://www.planetshaftesbury.org/post/plastics-free-shaftesbury-waste-management-talk-13-3-20) .
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Our ‘community leader’ for launching this campaign was Lucy Barfoot who established a plastic free shop, Coconut & Cotton, in Swan’s Yard (where the eco-shop ‘Forget-me-not’ is now). The campaign encouraged changes in local shopping habits and an increasing number of people are seeking refills of cleaning products so that we can reduce our use of plastic – refills now available from ‘Myrtle and Marigold’ on the High Street.
However, in other areas the ‘Plastic Free’ project has lost some momentum. In 2024 we anticipate new initiatives as part of the work to achieve a more Sustainable Shaftesbury which encompasses promotion of a circular economy and enhanced waste management. If you’d like to join in with future work you can get in touch by emailing us c/o planetshaftesbury@gmail.com
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Soft plastics can be recycled at Tesco and Shaftesbury also has a TerraCycle scheme operated by Alison Harding at 17 Pound Lane, SP7 8RZ. Alison asks that her property and joint driveway of neighbours is respected and all carrier bags taken home for future reuse. The bins are open 24/7. Alison maintains two facebook pages https://m.facebook.com/groups/624985834708968/?ref=group_browse and https://m.facebook.com/groups/1238160643017819/?ref=group_browse
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TerraCycle cleans and processes waste that cannot normally be recycled through municipal collections, making pellets that are then used in benches, children's toys etc. Many different manufacturers have contracts with TerraCycle, enabling them to say their packaging is recyclable. Therefore the waste must be sorted according to the contracts TerraCycle has for specific brands, rather than according to the type of plastic. TerraCycle makes charitable donations for each Kg of acceptably sorted waste.
