Written by Elaine Hayes, Plymouth Sound National Marine Park Interim Chief Executive

Have you ever seen the post on social media where the little girl is burned at the beach by a buried disposable barbecue? Did you think why would someone do that? Me too! What about a buried nappy? Same feeling – good! Or any kind of litter left anywhere other than in a recycling facility or a bin – I hope so. Yet if everyone is now nodding wisely, why is there litter on beaches, in our parks and on our streets?

Litter is the scourge of our lives today; the disposable culture that has developed over the past 25 years or so, has horrified many of us (I refer you back to social media posts on the subject of which there are many). I think it’s the whole thing about the convenience of items that don’t need washing, washing up or taking with us (viz coffee cups!) Did you know that each year the UK uses 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups and only 0.25 per cent are recycled? We don’t need these – if we all carried a re-useable cup, just think of the carbon we would save!

As I know from my days at Seafish, there are some products that do need to be sealed in if sold through a supermarket for hygiene reasons and that is understandable, but if we all shopped locally using independent shops – butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers again we would reduce the waste in the world. And before I get challenged – as a busy working Mum no I am not perfect, yes I use supermarkets but what I am always trying to do is the best I can.

There are now excellent alternatives to plastic wrapping that do the job well. My personal favourites are vacuum drinks bottles – I can take my tea to work in it and bring cold water for the train home. I don’t use foil or wrapping in cooking at all – pyrex comes with a lid! For the fridge items I use beeswax wraps – try and buy UK-made varieties to keep the carbon footprint down. The only downside of the beeswax wraps is you can’t see what is in them – but they do make the fridge look nice! One tradition that I hope will make a comeback is the milkman – how fabulous fresh milk and produce can be delivered to your door by an electric vehicle. How come that died out?

As a youngster – and now I am showing my age – I remember being given the Corona bottles to take back to the corner shop. Each bottle had a small deposit that could be reclaimed and the joy of taking two or sometimes three bottles back and claiming the pennies for sweeties is something I remember vividly. I wonder who remembers the delights of cream soda?

But to return to the beach, your local park, your street the message couldn’t be simpler – take it with you – all of it. Catch the bits that are blowing away. Recycle as much as possible. Burying rubbish is not disposal, it’s littering pure and simple and you can harm people, wildlife and the environment in the process.