Readers join Mail’s plastic pick up in their thousands
The Daily Mail’s Great Plastic Pick Up has already gathered huge support – with 8,689 readers registering to help tackle Britain’s throwaway culture.
We want readers, friends and families to spare a few hours over a bumper weekend collecting as much discarded plastic as they can.
There are now 418 organised pick ups arranged as well, with our volunteer army of litter-busters ready to clean up beauty spots, beaches, streets and parks from Friday, May 11 to Sunday, May 13.
The campaign has been backed by Theresa May and celebrities including TV wildlife experts Sir David Attenborough and Chris Packham.
A fantastic prize of an all-expenses-paid trip to a Sea Life Centre with Packham is on offer for the top litter-picking school.
The pick up comes a decade after the Mail launched its trail-blazing campaign to end the scourge of plastic bags that clog our oceans, litter the countryside and kill wildlife. We led calls for a 5p charge on plastic bags, and support a depositreturn scheme for plastic bottles.
The Mail and Keep Britain Tidy will send a pack of 30 special, 100 per cent recycled bags to the first 3,000 organised groups registering events on the Great Plastic Pick Up website.
Participants will be invited to share photos of their day and log how much litter they collected. Waste: a single-use cup We’ll select up to three winning teams to receive a Community Super Clean Up – with a professional coming to clean your area.
Keep Britain Tidy ambassador Julia Bradbury, a former presenter of Countryfile, yesterday endorsed the campaign, saying: ‘Single-use plastic is a subject that is close to my heart. When I’m out walking I see the huge impact it has even in the most remote places. It’s good to see this ongoing issue is getting the attention it needs and I hope as many people as possible will join in the Great Plastic Pick Up to protect our wildlife and marine life and personally take responsibility to clean up the environment on our doorstep and beyond.’
Labour MP Mary Creagh, who is chairman of the Commons’ environmental audit committee, said: ‘This is a fantastic initiative from the Daily Mail. As people start to venture out into their gardens and enjoy time outdoors, it’s absolutely vital that we embrace looking after our local environment, our streets and local beauty spots.
‘Anything that tackles the centuries-long impact of plastics in the environment is a really important contribution to a cleaner UK.’
And Tory MP Neil Parish, who
‘There’s so much out there’
chairs the environment, farming and rural affairs committee, said: ‘It’s a really good idea from the Daily Mail. It affects both urban and country areas, and there’s so much plastic out there. This will bring home the issue to a lot of readers, so will do a lot of good.’
A new kind of plastic that can be recycled infinitely has been developed by US scientists.
Ordinary plastic can be recycled only by grinding it down to be made into lower quality material.
But, according to a study published in journal Science, a research team from Colorado State University has developed a substance that can be broken down into its ‘building blocks’ then turned back into new plastic over and again.