How the Mail has led the way

FOR almost a decade, the Daily Mail has led the way in cleaning up the scourge of plastic waste.

In 2008, a Banish The Bags campaign urged shops to charge for single-use plastic bags in an effort to reduce the waste, cost and environmental damage of our throwaway society.

The 5p levy was introduced in Wales in 2011, followed by Northern Ireland and Scotland before England in 2015.

Since the charge was introduced, official figures revealed shoppers have since taken home 9 billion fewer carrier bags, a fall of 83 per cent, while money raised from the scheme has gone on to generate £95 million for good causes.

Last year, the paper launched the Ban The Beads campaign, to tackle the menace of toxic microbeads – tiny plastic beads which are blamed for poisoning sealife.

It highlighted the way in which cosmetic firms have used the tiny plastic beads, invisible to the naked eye, to add sheen to their products or improve their effectiveness at exfoliation.

They are made from polyethylene, the same material used to produce plastic bags, bullet-proof vests and artificial knee joints.

Just nine days after the campaign’s launch, the Government vowed to ban toxic plastic microbeads from cosmetic products.

And just two weeks ago, the Mail was praised by the head of the UN’s environment programme for its campaigning on the subject. At a conference that led to 100 nations pledging to stop polluting the oceans, Erik Solheim waved our front page headlined ‘Let’s turn the tide on plastic’. He told 7,000 delegates: ‘Pollution is the biggest killer on the planet and we need to defeat it.

‘The Daily Mail, one of the most widely read newspapers in the world, is putting the message out and this is really positive, really fantastic.’