History might yet regard 2017 as a landmark year in turning the tide on UK disposable packaging.
As the year draws to its close, the Government has announced its intention to consider imposing a tax on single use plastic containers, including bottles and coffee cups, This is viewed as an essential measure in helping tackle the challenge of ocean pollution.
A glance through our earlier blogs will reveal the extent to which we at NDA Packaging Services have given the issue focus. Indeed a look through our history will show the core-value emphasis we have placed for over fifteen years, on the need to responsibly retain and reuse our water bottles.
It seems that in 2017 politicians at last began to listen. This year, as a consequence of our work with the award winning Hydrachill Water Refilling Stations, we have been invited to London City Hall and the Houses of Parliament.
So what’s changed and why has 2017 been potentially so special?
As much as we’d like to claim credit for our persistence, without doubt major campaigns have helped generate real momentum. Shy’s Ocean Rescue programme and the efforts of organisations such as #OneLess and Surfers Against Sewage have finally helped marine disposable plastics pollution penetrate public consciousness
Even so, the gap between gaining a politician’s attention and the announcement of legislative taxation is usually a lengthier one. It perhaps required one final push and who better to provide it than Sir David Attenborough, No living Briton has had a greater influence in portraying the astonishing miracle that is our magnificent planet home and its delicate ecosystem.
So when Blue Planet 2 currently topping TV viewing statistics, dramatically switches tone to graphically reveal how our ocean’s stunning brilliance is being transposed into a living plastics hell for sea creatures, the impact makes change more likely. The cynic would say that politicians dare not resist voters ire The fairer-minded, might argue that politicians are equally moved because it’s their planet, too
Either way, the tide has turned and there can be no Plan B. Because in case you hadn’t noticed, there is no Planet B either. It's clear now that collectively we either sink or swim.
