MARCH 2024
With its limited resources, our group tries to engage with as many sectors of the community as possible, this includes schools, community groups, and businesses. But over the past couple of years, COVID and the cost of living crisis have combined with ill health to inhibit our efforts to help local businesses reduce their single-use plastic consumption. We now have a new business lead and hope that over the next few months we’ll be able to start reaching out to local entrepreneurs again. We were delighted to provide Lynda at It’s Scent with advice on the most sustainable packaging for her cosmetics business, and she has since been accredited as a Plastic-Free Champion! If you own a local business, however small, and want to cut down on single-use plastics, do message us via our Facebook page or email us on plasticfreedalgetybay@ gmail.com. There are lots of small, simple measures businesses can take that won’t cost them anything, and may even save them money. We can also help you understand the single-use plastics ban that came into force last year and advise you about the most sustainable alternative solutions.
On average, people in Scotland consume more than double the level of resources thought to be sustainable. If we continue at this rate, many natural resources will be completely depleted within the next two or three decades. The Circular Economy Bill currently going through the Scottish Parliament is a crucial piece of legislation that will shape Scotland’s efforts to move away from the linear economic model destroying our planet. We have responded to the public consultation on the Bill and are now collaborating with other environmental organisations in lobbying the Scottish Government to strengthen what is currently a very weak document. By the time you read this, we will have participated in a Circular Economy Fashion Show outside the Scottish Parliament, celebrating reuse and calling for a stronger Bill. Together with two of our fellow plasticfree communities, we created four fashion items for the show, made from the many plastic and e-waste items we find on our beach cleans, such as nurdles, applicators, and plastic bottles. Our number one recommendation when trying to reduce single-use plastics and other disposable items is to look for ways of simply avoiding them altogether, rather than replacing them with an alternative that may be equally harmful to the environment. Facebook: Plastic-Free Dalgety Bay
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