This site uses cookies to provide you with the best user experience. By using the Ashden website, you accept our use of cookies.
Posted By:
Vikki Leaney
Climate Change Stakeholder Engagement Officer
Plastic is made from fossil fuels and therefore releases carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions during the extraction and manufacturing processes. Single use plastic in particular isn’t reusable and pollutes our land, air and seas – even when it does reach a landfill site, methane gas is released during the breakdown process. Methane is a major contributing greenhouse gas causing global warming.
Durham County Council is cutting its consumption of single use plastic, and helping partners and suppliers do the same. Key to this is the creation of the council’s own single use plastic pledge, which it follows and encourages others to sign up to.
The council’s initiative was prompted by growing public awareness of plastic pollution. Organisations signing its pledge make three commitments:
The network has been set up with partners and gives support and advice to businesses.
More than 300 organisations and individuals have signed the pledge, including SMEs, schools and Durham University.
The council has developed a pledge logo to help organisations show their commitment.
Durham has also surveyed its suppliers, ensured all future contracts will consider alternatives to single use plastic, and made minimising its use a condition for organisations taking part in authority-run events and exhibitions.
The authority is also engaging with suppliers via the North East Procurement Organisation, working with local schools to educate children about the circular economy, raising awareness among residents, and advising other local authorities on the issue.
Durham is exploring the use of unrecyclable waste plastic to build local roads – 6.5 tonnes have been mixed with asphalt and used in a trial project that won a national award from the Association for Public Service Excellence. The council has also strengthened its recycling of street litter and made sure council buildings are using the authority’s internal recycling schemes correctly.
Reducing single use plastic remains a high priority for the council and is embedded within the Council’s Climate Emergency Action Plan and procurement and commissioning processes.
Reduced plastic waste
The council will quantify CO2 savings from the project in its next two-year action plan. But the impact of some individual changes is already clear from an internal audit:
Increased awareness
The council has also driven greater awareness of the issue within and beyond Durham. This includes promoting St Bede’s school in Sacriston as an example of best practice, particularly their plastic-free days. This resulted in national television coverage on BBC’s The One Show, with presenter and environmentalist Matt Baker signing the council’s pledge himself.
Increased public awareness of the danger posed by single use plastics was a key catalyst for the project. This was boosted by numerous campaigns and documentaries such as BBC’s Blue Planet. This awareness created support and buy in from the public and councillors.
Support at the council was strong enough that the pledge was developed before national legislation banning the use of plastic straws and stirrers came into effect. The council carried out a feasibility study looking at existing national pledges to do with single use plastic. It was after this that the authority decided to create its own bespoke pledge.
Partnership working was key to making the pledge and project successful, with organisations including Beamish Museum, The Environment Agency and Northumbrian Water joining a taskforce with the council. Close working across the council including the –waste management, procurement, catering and sustainability teams – was also essential.
Action on procurement was vital. This included making questions about single use plastic, such as whether suppliers had signed the pledge, part of the council’s standard procurement framework. The council also influenced the North East Procurement Organisation – which buys goods and services for many of the region’s authorities – to take the same approach for its contract. Council procurement staff have also placed alerts on internal systems to stop departments buying unnecessary single use plastic.
The SUP Pledge project doesn’t have a dedicated single budget line – but resource and responsibility are shared collectively within different service areas, with different departments changing their own area of work. Staff time tackling this issue is within members of the task group’s day to day roles.
The project is monitored every three months by a scrutiny group.
Feasibility work was important to the success of the project – in Durham’s case, it revealed that going 100% plastic free would be impossible, and that significantly reducing single use plastic while educating staff, communities and businesses was a more effective approach).
The feasibility study also highlighted potential pitfalls. One example of a potential mistake is jumping to use plastic free or biodegradable coffee cups which may not get recycled in the right way.
Good partnership working (both internal and external) was essential – if the authority doesn’t have the staff resource and support internally, then external partnerships are very useful.
Agreeing common goals made partnership working easier and more successful.
Find more resources for local authorities on our Learning Out Loud webpage.
T: 0207 4100330 E: info@ashden.org
The Peak, 3rd Floor 5 Wilton Road, London, SW1V 1AP
Registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee.
Registered number: 05062574/ Charity number: 1104153
See our privacy policy.
This site uses cookies to provide you with the best user experience. By using the Ashden website, you accept our use of cookies.
Stay up to date