I work in a shop and am horrified by the number of people asking for plastic carriers, sometimes just for one small item. We don't even charge them as we are too small. Multiply our shop by all the shops who give or even sell plastic carrier bags and the impact on the environment is immense. Many people now carry their own cloth bags and if plastic bags were not freely available, everyone else would learn very quickly, to do the same.

Reasons are mainly cause: They harm marine wildlife and ecosystems. They expose us to toxic chemicals. Why You Should STOP Using Plastic Straws? Science Says: Amount of straws, plastic pollution is huge. ... They figure that means 437 million to 8.3 billion plastic straws are on the entire world's coastlines. But that huge number suddenly seems small when you look at all the plastic trash bobbing around oceans. The use of plastic straws is killing the environment You’ve heard it on the news and across the internet — plastic straws are no good. Why? Plastic straws are no good because… Are Straws Recyclable? The average straw is made from polypropylene. This resin of plastic is identified as the number five when you look at its recycling code. Other things made from polypropylene include bottle caps, plastic cutlery, yogurt containers, etc. It is a highly recyclable plastic. However, there are different types of polypropylene — and the one used in the production of plastic straws is not widely accepted. Even some of the biggest recycling centres that DO accept polypropylene, DO NOT accept plastic straws. Why Using Plastic Straws is Bad? When straws cannot be accepted by your local recycling program and they are still included in the recycling bins, you’re creating a bigger problem. This negligence can cost cities millions of dollars to remove these straws from the items that can actually be recycled. Most plastic straws are used at restaurants and bars. Therefore, it’s completely up to the business to be environmentally responsible and find a proper recycling program that accepts plastic straws. The problem is, not many take this extra step. Straws that end up being thrown away (and recycled improperly) will end up in either landfills or floating garbage patches in the ocean. Even though straws are small, a lot are used and they can add up faster than most items that are thrown away. What You Should Do? Stop using all forms of plastic straws altogether. Do not buy them at the store and ask your server or bartender to hold off on giving you one when you order a drink. Live a straw-free life OR use straws made from recycled paper. Even though these straws became less popular in the 1960s (when plastic straws were introduced), they are still made and are the best option if you must use straws.

One tree supplies enough oxygen for four people- yes we all need our trees to breathe!

Crisp packets are not recyclable. Walkers run a recycling scheme, but drop offs either need to be in large quantities or a bin must be provided. The nearest bin is at the back of Hyde Park. With so many packets of crisps sold every day in LUU, we should be doing more to prevent them all ending up in landfill.

Dog Poo is hazardous to health, smelly, sticky and dificult to remove from car, carpet, shoes etc.Discarded Poo bags are unsightly, dangerous to livestock and wild life and are not generally bio-degradable so will remain where deposited for years.

We believe that this will greatly help protect the environment, providing a better world for future generations. Wildlife habitats have been lost to landfill sites, people and animals have become ill due to plastics in the sea eaten by small animals all way up the food chain and increased levels of methane gas have been released due to the plastic water bottles ending up in landfill. This needs to stop.

I love M&S food. It is a cut above many other food retailers and I was really excited to hear that I will be able to order online for home delivery with Ocado by September 2020 at the latest. I would love to be able to do a weekly shop with M&S especially during busy weeks when I don't have the time or the energy to cook a nutritious meal every night for my family. With an M&S meal you can be healthy and there is very little food waste, which is good for the environment. However, there is a big but - the heavy use of single-use plastic in their food packaging. You may have seen the story in the press about the cauliflower 'burgers' which were slices of cauliflower packaged in a large single-use plastic container. Single-use plastic is the kind that is used once and then thrown away, like food packaging, water bottles, coffee cups, straws and grocery bags. The problem is, every piece of plastic ever produced is still on our planet. There is more micro-plastic in the ocean than there are stars in our galaxy. Plastic is dumped in landfill and the ocean, and never biodegrades. It just gets smaller and smaller, and eventually ends up in our food chain. Supermarkets in the UK produce 800 000 tonnes of plastic waste each year and that figure is set to quadruple by 2050. Recycling is good but only 9% of plastic is recycled world wide. We recently learnt that 65% of the plastic we recycled in the UK was shipped to China until China refused to take anymore. The obvious solution is to reduce the amount of single-use plastic used. M&S have up to a year and a half to get ready for their home delivery service and increase in food sales. Whilst they upgrade the scale of food production, they have a unique opportunity to focus on the use of truly biodegradable, compostable packaging. Legislation is underway and environmental groups are lobbying the UK government to ban single-use plastic so all supermarkets will likely be forced to change their packaging in the future. The UN has told us we only have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe. Let's ask M&S not to wait for legislation, but to demonstrate true leadership and responsibility and show other food retailers that environmentally friendly food packaging is not only possible but that we the customers want it.

The majority of wars fought over the last 30+ years have been over access to and exploitation of fossil fuels. This has been an open secret, yet has received insufficient opposition from an environmentalist perspective. As regions around the world become environmentally unstable, they also become politically and economically unstable. We cannot deny that a link between aggressive foreign policy and climate change is becoming ever more apparent. The US, in particular, has an extensive history of toppling governments for fossil fuel-related motivations. The coup in Venezuela is no different. Regardless of how you feel about the current Venezuelan government, the potential for the privatisation of oil in the country by a possible Guaido government, backed by the US, will be a major loss for the planet. John Bolton, Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, has even openly admitted that supporting the coup is motivated by getting at the country's oil, as he unwittingly revealed in a Fox Business Network interview: "We're in conversation with major American companies now that are either in Venezuela or, in the case of CITGO, here in the United States. I think we're trying to get to the same result here. It'll make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela". Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. Enough to keep us burning dirty energy well past the point of no return of 12 years as warned by the IPCC. If we want to radically reduce carbon emissions, standing idly by while Venezuela's publicly-owned oil gets carved up by encroaching foreign fossil fuel companies is going to make the problem even worse. This is why we need to rally action on this issue and highlight its environmental aspect that is barely getting any attention. We can make this the start of a movement to apply public pressure and prevent an escalation of such behaviour. That includes any possibility of a direct invasion of the country the US government. This should be done both in the name of peace and the planet. At the same time, we could urge the Venezuelan government itself to diversify away from their dependency on these oil reserves and move towards renewable energy ASAP, setting a major example for other governments in the region. We are in an era of climate change wars, where governments are willing to do anything to fight over ever-dwindling scraps of fossil fuels. Even if it means violating international law, spreading misinformation, using sanctions & market forces as political leverage, or simply tweeting a president into existence. All the while the planet becomes less habitable and everyone will be left to bear the consequences of such actions. In short, if you believe in keeping fossil fuels in the ground, then we must not allow private interests to take it out of the ground in Venezuela. The first step in doing so is to publicly oppose it and push back from an environmental standpoint. #StoptheCoup

Plastic is bad for everyone - our environment, wildlife and human life. We are killing our planet with a material that isn’t necessary as there as so many alternatives however there are greedy people in the world who are willingly causing the murder of our home and everything in it carry on.

Following a successful campaign to ensure that it is at least theoretically possible to recycle Walkers crisp packets, we believe more action is urgently required to ensure that we make the most of this potential to reduce Scotland’s waste mountain. In fact, Terracycle (the company Walkers partnered with) actually have a rather wide range of recycling programmes (https://www.terracycle.co.uk/en-GB/brigades) that include: - air and home care products - bread bags - toothpaste products - crisp, biscuits and snack packets - Pringles tubes - writing instruments Obviously, none of these are included in kerbside recycling in Moray (or across Scotland, as far as I am aware). Local Councils are already struggling with cuts to services so do not have the capacity to help, so supermarkets seem ideally situated. We still only recycle 45.6% of waste generated in Scotland (www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-45638111), which is an appallingly low number when we consider how long we've been exposed to the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" mantra. Even though each of the Terracycle programmes is initiated by specific brands (i.e. Colgate), they do not just take their own particular brand (i.e. any kind of toothpaste tube) and each could significantly impact the amount of waste going to landfill. This could be a huge benefit to our environment, enabling us to truly become "Zero Waste Scotland". Sadly, all the initiatives currently seem to have hardly any representation in the places like the Highlands and Islands. For example, the nearest Pringles tube drop-off is in Inverurie (AB51). The "writing instruments" programme has Central Primary School in Inverness (which is only accessible to those with children at the school or staff members) and another in the rather obscure location of "Milton of Rothiemay" (a forty minute drive from Elgin). They are currently closed to new participants. It's great that we seem to have the technology to recycle so much but this current approach just seems ridiculously piecemeal. I understand that the brands are keen to burnish their green credentials and Terracycle offer a means for them to tick the "doing something about it" box. Yet how much is actually being recycled and how accessible are these programmes, particularly in rural locations? That's why I am petitioning the Scottish Government to legislate to force every supermarket in Scotland to collect materials for the Terracycle programmes. We need to have proper processes in place to reduce our waste and safeguard Scotland's future socio-economic prosperity. This seems a common-sense measure that everyone can support. However, we need to show the Scottish Government how passionately we care about this issues, so they take action and don’t get distracted by other objectives.

Have you ever taken notice whilst driving the sheer amount of rubbish along the kurbside, in the grass, bushes etc on nearly all roads now including motorways? It’s everywhere, we need to act now before it gets unbearable!

These single condiment sachets are littering our streets and ending up in our water ways and oceans. Not only can they only be used once, they can not be recycled and in order to get to the product inside, it involves tearing off a small piece of the packaging that often litters. Fast food and connivence stores are serving these sachets all over the world. We don't need them. We don't want them. So please stop.