What’s the old saying? “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Most people that have worked as part of an effective project can relate to this, and the Plastic Free Mersey project is no exception.
The project brings multiple stakeholders together to deepen the understanding of the flows of littered items that end up in riverine systems and to identify potential interventions to reduce such flows...
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Listen to some key stakeholders involved in Plastic Free Mersey, in conversation with Dave Gray on the Interplas Insights Podcast:
- Chris Coode, Deputy Chief Executive at Thames21
- Jason Leadbitter, Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at INOVYN.
- Jim Seward, Senior Vice President, Research & Development, Technology & Sustainability at LyondellBasell, and chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Plastics Council
- John Sanders, Strategic Planning Director at the Mersey Rivers Trust
The wide ranging conversation covers many topics, including:
• The importance of collaborative working between industry, government, NGOs, charities and the public. In particular, the importance of industry lending not only finance and advocacy, but also actively sharing science and expertise.
• The Global Plastics Treaty – key industry voices discuss the virtues of limiting production vs. design for circularity.
• How we can create value for waste.
• What do we really mean when we say ‘circular economy’?
• The lifecycle assessments of plastics (in certain industries) compared to alternative materials – why plastics have a sustainable role to play in society.
• Why the industry has a responsibility to prove that there are models that work – and deserve funding.
• The importance of training citizen scientists to truly understand problem plastics
• Sharing scientifically-sound information about problem plastics that exist in our rivers with local communities.
• The potential of chemical recycling.
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The project brings multiple stakeholders together to deepen the understanding of the flows of littered items that end up in riverine systems and to identify potential interventions to reduce such flows.
The project, launched last summer, is unique as it brings together environmental charities Thames21 and the Mersey Rivers Trust and businesses from across the entire plastics value chain, including LyondellBasell, one of the world’s largest producers of plastics and chemicals, INOVYN, Europe’s leading producer of vinyls, and PEEL NRE, a company that reuses, repurposes and reenergises natural resources. These three business partners have company sites in the River Mersey catchment.
Mayor Steve Rotheram with project partners and local councillors and representatives at last autumn’s community river clean-up event on the River Alt in Knowsley (Liverpool).
The initiative also has the support of the British Plastics Federation, PlasticsEurope, plastics recycling charity RECOUP, SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK, an expert in the water and waste sectors, and the endorsement of public authorities, including Liverpool City Region, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Warrington Borough, and Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority.
The project aims to raise awareness of the plastic pollution faced by the River Mersey and its tributaries to enable local communities and the plastic supply chain to provide proactive support and involvement in improving the health of these rivers. Ultimately, it is hoped that the initiative will shape behaviour change to keep litter out of the Mersey, reduce its impact on the natural environment, and wildlife and retain valuable materials longer in the circular economy.
Volunteers and project partners and supporters in Kersal Wetlands, Salford (top and bottom left).
Led by Thames21 to build on its strong experience of citizen science data collection on rivers and working closely with the Mersey Rivers Trust with its strong links into local communities and knowledge of the river catchment, the initiative trains and supports volunteers to use robustly designed systems to find, sort, count and quantify plastic items at litter hotspots across the network of waterways, from the Pennines to Liverpool Bay.
Debbie Leach, CEO of Thames21, says that the collaborative approach of the project has achieved great wins since its inception with the whole plastic supply chain (from manufacturers to resource management firms) working with citizens and communities to obtain crucial data on the plastic pollution challenge. “One organisation on their own cannot solve all the problems of plastic pollution in the natural environment. And the more organisations that join the collaborative effort, the more it adds to the credibility and effectiveness of a unified industry taking constructive action,” she says.
Working with guidance from the partners, since last year citizen scientists have carried out litter surveys and submitted data from the Mersey and its tributaries.
Collectively, almost 1,000 individual pieces of litter have already been categorised and removed from the natural environment by local volunteers, with 60% of these items collected from the River Alt alone, which had higher levels of litter than sites on other rivers in the Mersey catchment. From this data, the project has found the most common item to be plastic food packaging, as shown in the graph below.
The project has found the most common problem plastic to be plastic food packaging.
A further 200 items have been categorised using walking surveys, which are used when riverbanks are inaccessible or dangerous to access (e.g. foreshore and estuary sites). Currently this type of survey has been completed on sites along the Mersey estuary. Here cigarette filters/butts were most common, with plastic food packaging the second most common plastic item found on the foreshore.
LyondellBasell and INOVYN are active participants in an international initiative called Operation Clean Sweep (OCS). OCS is designed to prevent the release of plastic pellets, flakes and powders into the environment during handling by the various parties in the plastics value chain. Companies signing up to OCS commit to adopting best practice to address spills and minimise the risk of industrial plastic material loss, among other factors.
OCS is administered by the British Plastics Federation in the UK and Plastics Europe on the continent.
Philip Law, Director General at the BPF, says: “Plastic is a material that is vital to many industries and without it they would be unable to function – but discarded plastic obviously has no place in the natural environment. That is why we run initiatives like Operation Clean Sweep, to ensure plastic raw materials stay appropriately contained. It is also why we are proud to be supporting initiatives like this, which brings businesses, environmental charities and people together in a unique way, looking for solutions and gathering highly useful data. I encourage more companies to get involved that are looking for transferable solutions.”
Volunteers and Mersey Rivers Trust Director John Sanders at work on the River Irwell (bottom right).
Plastics that are not recycled or reused many times are value lost to the economy and Plastic Free Mersey wants to help change that. By stimulating a change of behaviour amongst people and businesses, the initiative can retain more plastic items and other items in the economy. The programme is investigating the potential for materials collected during litter surveys to be taken through advanced recycling processes to be turned into new products.
The aim is for the Plastic Free Mersey project to act as a pilot to similar organisations working together in other river catchment areas in the UK and abroad.
Leach added: “The key to ending plastic pollution in the River Mersey lies in collaboration. We need to approach it from different angles and in a multidisciplinary way. The responsibility lies with the whole supply chain – academics, manufacturers, brands, environmentalists, NGOS, waste companies, and finally consumers. Our Plastic Free Mersey project is demonstrating that this works.”
If your business is interested in knowing more about and getting involved in the project, please get in touch with us at Thames21 (Project Coordinator Luca Marazzi – luca.marazzi@thames21.org.uk; Head of Engagement and Education Chris Coode – chris.coode@thames21.org.uk).