A fantastic response to our war on plastic

THIS paper has been humbled and moved by its readers’ fantastic response to the Great Plastic Pick Up, which began yesterday and runs through the weekend.

In countless thousands, people of every age group have rallied to our call to clean up streets, parks, villages and beaches and help rid our planet of the plastic scourge to wildlife and the environment.

Their response is testimony to a vast fund of public- spiritedness and communal goodwill in this country, which needs only to be tapped to improve the quality of life for those living now and generations to come.

Indeed, as Theresa May said yesterday when she joined volunteers, initiatives like this really can make a difference.

We saw this in the way the Mail’s Banish the Bags campaign has revolutionised shoppers’ habits, with the number of single-use plastic bags handed out by supermarkets plunging by a dramatic 85 per cent since the 5p charge came in.

We saw it again when our focus moved on to throwaway coffee cups, plastic bottles, straws, packaging and microbeads in beauty and cleaning products.

In all these areas, action followed and more is promised, with MPs, manufacturers and retailers redoubling efforts to introduce biodegradable alternatives.

Indeed, it is no longer fanciful to look forward to a near future when unnecessary plastics are eliminated altogether.

Of course, there is much, much more to be done – as illustrated so vividly by yesterday’s harrowing pictures of albatross chicks, suffering and dying on a remote atoll in the Pacific, victims of plastic casually discarded by humans.

But the Great Plastic Pick Up shows that the will to clean up our planet burns strongly in British hearts.

The Mail is proud of its globally acclaimed role in raising awareness and recruiting support. But the real credit must go to the legions who have responded – and especially to those doing their bit this weekend. Our heartfelt gratitude to you, one and all.