Govt needs to step up efforts to combat plastic pollution

SIR, The State must step up its game to tackle plastic pollution in the wake of the UK’s pledge to eliminate plastic waste by 2042. Measures in the UK’s new 25 Year Environment Plan include extending the UK’s plastic bag levy, removing single-use plastics from government offices and introducing plastic-free supermarket aisles.

The Environmental Pillar - a coalition of 26 national environmental organisations - would like to now see more urgency from our own Government in bringing about policy change to tackle plastic pollution.

We believe that the State can go much further than our UK counterparts, starting with a series of measures to cut down on our plastic consumption.

Such measures include: The introduction of a levy on all single-use non-compostable items; The introduction of a deposit scheme for the return of drinks containers; The introduction of a ban on microbeads which the Government said it planned to bring into effect last year.

In a 2016 survey, Coastwatch Ireland found that 80 per cent of surveyed coastal sites contained litter, with plastic bottles the major source of litter. The amount of marine litter in our oceans is predicted to increase year-on-year. Without serious action from both our Taoiseach and other world leaders, there will be frightening consequences for our marine environment.

Sincerely,

Niall Sargent, Communications Manager, Environmental Pillar, 1 Green Street, Dublin 7.