From Brent Council
Plans have been announced to rid Wembley town centre of all plastic shopping bags and plastic cups, in a bid to become 'plastic' free.
The campaign which officially launches Thursday 15th November focuses on the borough's most visited area and aims to reduce plastic use there by 15 per cent by 2020, in time for the European Championships and the celebration of Brent as the London Borough of Culture.
The project is run in partnership with Wembley Traders Association and in Your Face Advertising and through it the Council hopes to encourage all businesses to commit to eliminating single plastic use, which for Wembley's green grocers is a staggering 100,000 plastic bags a week.
Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) cups, Vegetable Starch refuse sacks and ecoMEDIAbox's (an alternative carrier bag) are being handed out free of charge to greengrocers and bars currently piloting the scheme. It is hoped that these compostable and 100 per cent biodegradable items, made from plants such as corn, cassava and sugar cane, are taken up by all retailers and businesses across the town centre.
Cllr Krupa Sheth, Lead Member for Environment, said:
We're committed to doing what we can locally to help this greater issue. Through this innovative project we are hoping to significantly change the amount of plastic waste across the town centre, especially at larger sites such as Wembley Stadium and Wembley Park Drive, where the number of plastic cups used on one single event day averages 160,000.Cllr Shama Tatler, Lead Member for Regeneration, Highways & Planning, said:
We are all aware of the global problem created by our use of plastic and on a local level in Brent are working with businesses to address fundamentally unsustainable habits of shopping and leisure in the borough. It's not something that we can do alone, it relies on the support of our local businesses and shoppers to get on board with what we are trying to achieve.Businesses and residents can follow the campaign on Instagram: pfwembley, Twitter: @pfwembley #PlasticFreeWembley and Facebook: Plastic Free Wembley