24 October 2018
Solihull Council will be working towards banning single-use plastics from its buildings following a motion from Smith's Wood Green Party Councillor Ben Groom.
The move, which follows similar initiatives in Councils throughout the country, aims to eradicate single-use plastics from the Council's buildings and operations by 2020.
Ben said: "This is a huge issue with a lot of public support and it's vital that the Council takes a lead in this to encourage more local organisations to do the same.
At present, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plastic goes into the ocean every year. This figure includes half a billion disposable coffee cups per year and 500 million straws every day. This is unnecessary.
I know a lot of countries are considering a ban and the EU recently published a report on the matter."
A recent report showed that, at the current rate, the amount of plastic in the sea would weigh more than all the fish in the sea by 2050, which highlights the urgency of taking action.
A charge on plastic bags in shops has seen an 80 per cent drop in usage in recent years. It's important to build on that success so it's great to see multi-party support for this initiative which passed with a huge majority in the Council chamber.
