Pontypridd joins the anti-plastic campaign

Janet Jones, President of Pontypridd WI says:

"GO GREEN" - little did I realise when I first mooted the idea of a plastic bag-free Pontypridd where the journey would lead me.
Three years ago I was one of the people who never refused a free plastic bag. And when I re-used them in my kitchen bin and around the garden I felt very virtuous. But reading an article in the Daily Telegraph was to change all that. A young BBC wildlife photographer had made a film about the devastation she encountered in the ocean, called "Written in the Waves". After seeing the film and reading about her campaign I started to think of the town I live in, and tried to gain support from the members of Pontypridd WI. Although I tried very hard my words were falling upon stony ground.
I then organised a visit for Pontypridd WI members, to the local recycling facility where they were able see at first hand the mountains of waste and what happens to it after it is collected from their homes.
Although everyone was impressed with how the Local Authority handled the waste there was still no enthusiasm for my campaign.
Until that is, Richard Reast from the local Friends Of The Earth contacted me and asked if I would be interested in attending a meeting of the local FOE to discuss the issue of plastic bags. I duly informed the members of the WI and managed to persuade four committee members to attend also. During this time the local council were using our locality as a test area for the recycling of food waste. Delivering and explaining the procedure were two young women and of course I started to regale them with my recycling habits and of course WI came into this scenario also. I invited them to come and speak to the members at our next meeting which they gladly accepted.
Unknown to me one of those young women was the wife of the Director of Streetcare at the local council - Nigel Wheeler. He telephoned me the next day and his enthusiasm matched my own. I invited him to come along to the meeting with FOE and the rest as they say is history.
A committee was formed and we enlisted the help of Jane Davidson Minister for the Environment at the Welsh Assembly, who also happens to be our local AM. We designed a poster and visited every business in the main street, asking for their support on the day of action by not giving out plastic bags. The response was very positive from all of them. The local primary schools were sent a challenge to design a poster to give to traders to show their support on the day. Jane Davidson AM presented the winner with a framed copy on the day. Pontypridd Town council provided a Town Crier to spread the word and added a touch of old world charm to the proceedings.
All our plans came to fruition on December12 2008. What a fabulous launch day it proved to be. The media were out in force, ITV Wales wanted to do an interview to include in the 6pm news, Radio Wales and Radio Cymru wanted interviews, the local radio station did a piece on the day and Media Wales decided to use our day to start off their campaign.

We gave out hessian bags to the public and when those ran out we gave bags for life donated by local businesses. Swapping single-use bags we were able to explain to the public, face to face, the need to say NO to free plastic bags. In Wales we use 640 million plastic bags annually and each one has a life of between 12-20mins. They then go into landfill sites or end up in our oceans, roadside verges and countryside, where they kill and maim wildlife indiscriminately, and take hundreds of years to degrade. Young children from the local primary schools eco teams came to support us and an enterprising group of young girls from Pontypridd High School sold beautifully decorated cotton bags they had made.

Everyone agreed it was a successful launch. All we have to do now is carry on the campaign and hopefully this time next year we will be celebrating Pontypridd, the largest town in Wales to actually go PLASTIC BAG FREE. What an achievement that would be! From little acorns mighty oak trees grow! What will the next campaign be? PACKAGING maybe!