At a summer beach clean in Llandudno today, held in collaboration with the Marine Conservation Society and in line with Coronavirus guidance, the Member of the Welsh Parliament for Aberconwy – Janet Finch-Saunders MS – praised the community commitment to ensure clean local coastal habitats, by removing the “modern menace that is single use plastic.”
Janet, who is the Shadow Minister for Climate Change, opened the event by speaking of her campaign to ban single use plastics and introduce a Wales-wide Deposit Return Scheme. Among those attending the event were the Member for North Wales, Mr Mark Isherwood MS; Clare Trotman from the MCS; students from St David’s College; and officials from the Lane End Group.
Commenting on the turn out, Janet said:
“We’re blessed in Aberconwy to be home to some of the best stretches of coastline in the United Kingdom, welcoming the wildlife and vegetation that comes with it. But this fact also brings a great responsibility to look after and maintain our coastal habitats for generations to come.
“With such an emphasis on the climate emergency, I am often concerned that nature plays second fiddle when it comes to policy. With great voluntary attendance to our beach clean today from a range of stakeholders, it is clear to see that the public are calling out for urgent action to be taken to confront the modern menace that is single use plastic.
“The MCS make clear that, every year, between 8 and 13 million tonnes of plastic enters our ocean. In fact, over a 100m stretch of beach, approximately 92.4 items of plastic were picked during the Great British Beach Clean in 2020 of which the majority tended to be public waste.
“As the volunteers agreed today, policy to confront this issue must become proactive, which is why I have long been a proponent for a two-pronged approach to include a caveated ban on certain single-use materials and for the introduction of a deposit return scheme.”
