Mold starts to fight against the growing problem of single-use plastics

Residents in Mold recently held a public meeting to help shape the future of the town following concerns raised by the town council.

The Leader previously reported that councillors in Mold described the amount of plastic collected during the 10th annual Mold Spring Clean in April, especially bottles, as ‘shocking’.

Volunteers collected 330 bags of rubbish but were shocked by the number of discarded plastic bottles that were found in the targeted areas.

Pictured; A collage of photos that were shared by Mold Town Council following the annual Spring Clean that celebrated its tenth year as an annual event

Cllr Andrea Mearns said: "It can be quite a challenge to find alternatives and to ensure products can be easily recycled.

"Even though the recycling rate in Wales is ahead of the rest of the UK, second in Europe and third in the world, there is still a lot more to do when it comes to us being actively engaged in reducing how much single-use plastic we use."

Chaired by local woman Sarah Pratt, who is passionate about improving environmental sustainability, various speakers were invited to the Daniel Owen Centre to share what was already being done in the town, with the hope of inspiring others to play a part in making a difference.

Sarah said: "As the group head of corporate sustainability for Barratt Developments PLC, I work day in and day out with the challenge of reducing waste, especially plastics. We are making small steps to reduce what we do as a business but if everyone makes those small steps together we can all make a really big difference to the way our planet will look in the years to come."

One speaker was Mair Davies, chair of Llangollen Plastic Free, a group that has taken initiatives to develop and share tips on how to cut single-use plastics out of day-to-day life and helped the town achieve a Plastic Free Community status.

Pictured (from left); Kathryn Murray, Sebastien Bernard, Cllr Carolyn Thomas, Sarah Pratt and Mair Davies. Speakers who attended the initial Mold Plastics Reduction Meeting in the Daniel Owen Centre on May 13

Mair came to the meeting to share ideas with the group on how to kick-start the campaign to get Mold residents to reduce the plastic waste they produce but also how to extend the lifespan of single-use plastics.

She said: "It is great to see that so many people have come out to support this drive, as it is the people and their will that will help make a real difference. A close-knit community like Mold can really pull together and be seen as an example to other towns that this kind of positive action is very much achievable to protect our future generations."

Amy Green, a Wild About Mold project officer from the North Wales Wildlife Trust, spoke about the devastating impact that plastics continue to have on our environment and referenced the all too common images shared on social media of animals trapped and suffering as a result of plastic waste finding its way to our canals, rivers and seas.

A community group was formed following the public meeting and already has hundreds of concerned and socially responsible residents wanting to make a difference in their town as members. The page can be found by searching for 'Plastic Reduction Mold - Lleihau Plastig Yr Wyddgrug' on Facebook.

The next group meeting is planned to take place on Thursday, June 13 at 7pm in the Jubilee Room at Mold Town Hall, on Earl Road, where members plan to share new ideas and discuss the group's options and priorities moving forward.

For more information, call Mold Town Council on 01352 758532 or email events@moldtowncouncil.org.uk.

Pupils give crisp packets the ‘green’ treatment

A SCHOOL is on a mission to tackle the issue of recycling one crisp packet at a time.

The Alun School in Mold signed up with TerraCycle after a parent recommended the scheme and learning that, if left, crisp packets can take decades to decompose.

Speaking at the first Plastic Reduction Mold meeting, Year 9 pupil Sebastien Bernard spoke about what steps the school is taking to combat single-use plastics around its grounds.

He said: "We have worked hard as a school council to bring these environmental issues to the forefront of our minds and, since we introduced some of the schemes, everyone has gotten on board with the ideas and you hardly see any unnecessary waste being produced."

Sebastien explained that the school also stopped using disposable plates and cutlery in its canteen, favouring reusable crockery, knives, forks and spoons.

The crisp packet recycling scheme comes from the wider TerraCycle project that is a free, national recycling solution for typically hard-to-recycle items - such as coffee pods, pens, bread bags and toothpaste tubes.

Pictured; Members of the Alun School's Council and Eco Group have organised to have a crisp packet recycling box at the school reception in Mold. (From left at back; Lauren Cox and Sebastien Bernard) (From left at front; Evey Garner, Faye Curran, Seren Alagul and Joey Hughes)

These items are then shipped off to TerraCycle via UPS, where packets are sorted and separated by material composition. The separated items are then cleaned, shredded, and made into new recycled products.

Emma McIntyre, the healthy school coordinator for Mold Alun, said: "It is great to see the future generation looking after the planet and build up relationships in the community.

"The school continues to support the environment, working together to promote environmentally friendly choices. As part of their journey to achieve their third EcoSchools Green Flag Award, the school is working on becoming a Plastic Clever School, which included setting up a crisp recycling drop-off point for the local community, supported by TerraCycle and Walkers."

Miss McIntyre also explained that residents can collect crisp packets at home and come to drop them off between 8.30am and 3.30pm when the school is open during term time.

To sign up as a TerraCycle drop-off point, or for more information about the schemes, go to www.terracycle.com/en-GB.

In the business of being stylish and sustainable

A BUSINESS in Flintshire is making strides to becoming the area's first sustainable salon.

As part of a bid to cut down on single-use plastic in Mold, Kathryn Murray and the team at Muka Hair Design on the town's High Street explained their step-by-step plan to become a completely sustainable salon in the near future.

Salon owner and director Kathryn, explained how the salon has been using the Davines sustainable product range for nearly two years and she has also successfully participated in the company's sustainable salon programme which has enabled Muka to create an eco-friendly action plan for the future.

Kathryn is hoping that MUKA can lead the way in Mold businesses taking a pledge against single-use plastics

Kathryn said: "Initiatives like this start with communities and when we all do our bit, however big or small, real changes happen.

"Muka's passions lie in the belief that we are equally responsible for what we do and how we do it and the impact it has on our surroundings, people and environment. Our goal over the next few months is to completely reduce any single-use plastic in the salon.

"We plan to have a full scale fill-up bar at the back-wash area of the salon. This is already running, and we plan to have all our Davines shampoo and conditioner range sold in the salon readily available to top up at the fill-up bar.

"All bottles are multiple use and can be refilled with the incentive of a reduced price of £1 off the regular retail price. The product normally costs between £16 and £17."

Davines is a family-owned company from Parma, in Italy, that supports a reforestation program to compensate the carbon dioxide emissions, caused during the packaging production.

Kathryn told the Leader how all the containers they sell are single material plastic that aids in the recycling process.

Pictured (from left); Salon owner Kathryn Murray and stylist Alice Marple on the front desk with some of the sustainable products used at MUKA

She added: "We encourage our clients to keep their bottles for re-use as they have the food label on and can be used to store various snacks, seeds, nuts and oils. Some clients even use them for potting seeds. The production of the packaging has been offset by reforestation and woodland protection projects."

As part of their sustainable action plan, the salon itself was refurbished in 2017 and used as much recycled and reclaimed materials as possible, to create a space with as many environmentally friendly fixtures and fittings as possible.

For further information about what the salon are doing, visit their Facebook page by searching for 'Muka Hair Design'.

Tap into a simple but clever way to make a difference

A WAY to keep hydrated and tackle the single-use plastic problem could stop millions of plastic bottles being used.

The Refill app - launched in 2016 - is a free tap water initiative designed to reduce plastic pollution by making refilling your water bottle easy, attractive and rewarding.

Users can call into a participating business, fill up their water bottle for free and then register what that they have topped up and see the positive environmental impact that not using a plastic bottle has caused.

Logo for the Refill Scheme in Wales that business owners can display to show their involvement in the project (Image from Refill)

Refill say that if just one in 10 people refilled their water bottle once a week instead of throwing them away, there would be 340 million less plastic bottles a year in circulation.

In Mold alone, there are currently six stations visible on the Refill app (at the time of publication) that offer this service, including two Greggs stores, Costa Coffee on High Street, Starbucks off the Wylfa Roundabout, The Gold Cape Wetherspoon on Wrexham Street and the café in the Daniel Owens Centre in Daniel Owen Square.

Residents who attended the meeting in Mold were very impressed with the scheme and are now looking to make local businesses more aware of it.

National chains all offer the Refill service as a company policy but local businesses that want to make a difference are able to sign up and offer the service for free by using the smartphone app or website - www.refill.org.uk/refill-schemes/.

Eco responsibilty doesn’t stop with the individual

FROM a government level right down to grassroots, deputy minister Hannah Blythyn says the onus falls on everyone to take action when it comes to recycling.

Hannah Blythyn, deputy minister for housing and local government, has championed what Wales is currently doing to be seen as third best in the world when it comes to recycling.

She said: "We have only got to where we are today through Welsh Government and Local Authorities working together and the commitment of residents to recycling. Wales is on a journey towards becoming a circular economy, which means making the products we consume last longer and recycling as much waste as possible."

Ms Blythyn told the Leader how the Welsh Government has been working on various projects to boost what is already being done across the region.

Pictured; Hannah Blythyn AM, deputy minister for housing and local government

She said: "We have been working with City to Sea to roll out the Refill Cymru scheme and, just this month, we launched our £6.5 million Circular Economy Fund, which will offer grants to businesses of any size seeking capital investment funding to increase their use of recycled materials in manufactured products, components or packaging, with a key focus on plastic."

The Circular Economy Fund will help Wales reach the milestones of 70 per cent recycling by 2025 and 100 per cent recycling by 2050, as set out in the Welsh Government's waste strategy Towards Zero Waste.

The deputy minister added: "We have recently consulted jointly with the UK Government on the potential for a Deposit Return Scheme as well as Extended Producer Responsibility, where producers cover more of the cost for recovering packaging they produce.

"Later this year, we will consult on Part Four of the Environment (Wales) Act, which will place a requirement on businesses and other organisations to separate their recyclable waste for collection, just as households have already been doing for years."

Leading the way in a short space of time

FLINTSHIRE and Wrexham are leading the way when it comes to recycling.

Cllr Carolyn Thomas, cabinet member for Streetscene and countryside, championed Wales for being the third best country worldwide for recycling efforts - and Flintshire for being recognised as being the third best council area across the country for recycling, followed by Wrexham as sixth.

Currently, recycling rates for Flintshire lie at just under 70 per cent and Cllr Thomas was keen to stress this is a tremendous improvement from a rate of just seven per cent 15 years ago in 2004.

In Wrexham, the rate stands at 65 per cent for 2017-18, a 10 per cent improvement compared to a total of 55 per cent in 2013-14.

On average, 63 per cent of all waste in Wales was recycled, according to My Recycling Wales.

Pictured; Cllr Carolyn Thomas

At a public meeting held in Mold, Cllr Thomas explained the recycling process in Flintshire and answered questions from residents about the council's role in helping people to recycle.

She said: "It is brilliant to see that Flintshire is leading the way with recycling, as it is such a big issue and the less plastic we use the better. We have done a massive amount in 15 years and, once we get more people recycling, we can get to the next stage of striving to become a zero-waste county.

"You have probably heard the mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle for some years now and that is because recycling is the last possible solution and we should firstly look to reduce the waste we produce and forming a dedicated group like this is something I believe can help the people of Mold achieve that."

Cllr Thomas said that recycling plastic can be tricky, as all the plastics collected for recycling need to be sorted into different groups depending on which polymers they contain.

Statistics found on the website My Recycling Wales show plastic constitutes one of the most widely used materials in the UK and, as such, is one of the biggest contributors to the country's waste.

There is often confusion about which types of plastic can be recycled and, since plastic is non-biodegradable, it is important to recycle it properly to prevent it ending up causing damage to the environment.

Currently, Flintshire recycles 56,000 tonnes of waste annually - with plastic making up 1,650 tonnes of that figure.

In comparison, Wrexham also recycled 56,000 tonnes of waste in the last year - however, the county collected just over 2,000 tonnes of plastic in that time.

What you are doing to wage war on problem plastics in your area of Flintshire and Wrexham? Let us know by emailing andrew.nuttall@newsquest.co.uk or call 01352 707717.