Call for people to reduce their plastic use this festive season

Live Here Love Here. is urging 1000 households in Newry to embrace the Plastic Promise this festive season. Launched four years ago, the Plastic Promise aims to raise awareness about plastic misuse and the organisation has garnered pledges from individuals, schools, businesses, and community groups across Newry to minimise single-use plastic in their daily lives. The charity emphasises that various plastics associated with the festive period, such as wrapping paper, glitter, decorations, partyware, and food items, are often discarded after just one use.

Chris Gourley, Waste and Pollution Strategic Lead at Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, underscores the detrimental impact of single-use plastics. He notes that while plastic pollution is a year-round concern, the consumption of single-use plastics surges during Christmas. Single-use plastics, designed for brief use, can take hundreds of years to degrade, causing lasting environmental harm and endangering wildlife.

Gourley encourages people to adopt the "refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra during the holiday season. Practical alternatives include bringing reusable shopping bags and cups to minimise packaging when shopping or enjoying festive drinks. Regarding gift wrapping, Gourley advises against non-recyclable materials like glittery and shiny wrapping paper, urging the use of environmentally friendly alternatives like brown paper or newspaper decorated with fabric strips and string. He suggests reusing gift boxes and bags to reduce waste and highlights the potential for repurposing Christmas cards and wrapping paper for DIY decorations.

Furthermore, Gourley emphasises the importance of thoughtful gift choices, recommending items with enduring value or experiential gifts like gigs, restaurant vouchers, and subscriptions. He also urges mindfulness in selecting food packaging during the festivities.

Ian Humphreys, Chief Executive of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, emphasises the urgency of addressing the climate emergency and calls for a sustainable approach in households. Humphreys said “The reality is we are in a climate emergency, and we all need to play our part by adopting a sustainable approach. My hope for 2024 is that households make greater commitments to the circular economy – a concept that prioritises sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing to help produce less waste. Northern Ireland ranks 12th in the world for biodiversity loss, and with more than four million items of single-use plastics dumped here each week, it’s crucial that we change, starting with taking the Plastic Promise this Christmas”

For guidance on reducing plastic footprint during the holidays and to pledge to Live Here Love Here's Plastic Promise, visit www.liveherelovehere.org/plasticpromise.