FORMBY
ATKINSON JEWELLERS LTD established 1977
WE ARE STILL OPEN Another local jewellers has closed recently but it’s not us!
24 October 2018
Vol 25 l Issue 43
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3 The Gallery, Furness Avenue, Formby L37 4NN Tel: 01704 832056
NOT SUCH A GOLDEN OLDIE!
INSIDE THIS WEEK...
Fifty-year-old crisp packet found on Formby beach leads to renewed calls for action on non-recyclable waste Report by Danielle Thompson LITTER more than 50 years old has been found on Formby and Freshfield beaches. The startling discoveries included a Golden Wonder crisps packet, and a Maltesers bag and were uncovered in the sands by beach clean-up volunteers. With pressure mounting on manufacturers to make their packaging recyclable after new research revealed more than 100 million marine animals are killed every year due to plastic debris in the ocean, the finds locally are proof, claim campaigners, that action needs to be taken to curb non-recyclable waste. One of the volunteers, Tracey Crosthwaite, teamed up with fellow litter-pickers Amber Sharrock and Carla Stevens earlier this year to form the Formby and Freshfield Beach Litter Angels and they quickly built up a group of more than 340 members who regularly patrol the Sefton coastline to rid it of non-biodegradable waste, including plastic and glass. She said that since the group was formed in July, they have found a ‘horrifying’ amount of waste on the beach, including nappies, plastic bottles, ice cream wrappers, cans and plastic multi-can holders. They also find waste that has been washed out to sea and back in, sometimes for decades, which also includes a lot of plastic. Last week, photographs of a packet of Golden Wonder crisps, priced at 6d, and a Maltesers packet priced 5 1/2p that were taken by a United Utilities volunteer went viral after they were picked at a beach clean event in Formby. The items are believed to have survived more than five decades before being revealed on the beach by incoming tides. Crisp manufacturers are being urged to make their packaging recyclable and/or biodegradable. Some campaigners have even been returning empty crisp packets to Walkers in a bid to persuade the company to look
Art group visit the warriors Members of the Formby and Freshfield Beach Litter Angels who found the 50-year-old crisp packet, right
again at it’s manufacturing techniques and avoid the use of non-recyclable packets. Shocking statistics released by the environmental campaign charity Ocean Crusaders found that 100,000 marine creatures a year die from plastic entanglement. Approximately one million sea birds are also thought to die from discarded plastic waste. Tracey told the Champion that last week’s finds are just the tip of the iceberg as far as decades-old waste on the beach is concerned. Environmental groups have claimed that there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050 - and in just four months, the ‘angels’ have also found a Golden Wonder crisp packet, dated 1971; a can of Coke and Top Deck beer can, both dated 1987; a can of Guinness from the 1970s and a hand-blown green Prince of Wales Southport glass believed to have been produced no later than 1970. Continued inside
Go-ahead for golf resort plans CROSSWORD See Page 28
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