Plastics

From up in the mountains to down on the seabed, plastic waste is everywhere. If we’re to end plastic pollution, the biggest contributors need to take responsibility and minimise the waste they’re creating. Find out why single-use plastic is such a problem and how to hold polluters to account.

Over recent years the scale of plastic pollution and its chokehold on nature has floated to the top of people’s environmental priorities but remains low on the government’s agenda. Instead of putting the onus on individuals to buy plastic-free products, what if we lived in a world free from unnecessary plastic? And what would it take to get there?

From polluted rivers to dirty air, our environment needs urgent attention. Is the new Environment Act good enough to save and restore nature?

We’re writing to Secretary of State George Eustice to ask him to make the environmental principles stronger, not weaker. Read our open letter here.

Earth Day is a global annual event aimed at highlighting environmental issues. The theme for Earth Day in 2022 is "Invest in our Planet".

Government urged to include legally binding plastic reduction targets in Environment Bill

Friends of the Earth urges more football clubs, sports grounds and venues to act on single-use plastic

In July 2019 Caerphilly (South Wales) was awarded "plastic-free community" status by a marine conservation charity, following the town’s campaign to reduce single-use plastic. So how did they do it?

“There is no excuse for this level of plastic use by supermarkets. They need to do far more, not just to make the plastic recyclable, but to avoid using it in the first place. "

Meadhbh Bolger from Friends of the Earth Europe played a key role in pushing for new EU legislation on single-use plastics. She tells Celeste Hicks about the new law.