St Andrews plastic initiative continues to grow

Campaigners say the Towards a Plastic Free St Andrews initiative has been gaining more support over the past couple of months, with more businesses signing up to make changes at their premises.

Daphne Biliouri-Grant, the co-ordinator of the initiative, said the University of St Andrews, BID St Andrews and Tourism St Andrews were among the organisations that had shown an interest in making changes.

“Since the launch event, I have been engaging in continuous discussions with some of the largest stakeholders in St Andrews to ensure that they get involved and support the initiative,” she said.

“It’s wonderful to see that there is keen interest from all. They all have established their own strong sustainability strategies, and tackling single-use plastics pollution is one of the focal areas. I will be preparing an action plan to establish a unified strategy in regards to the eradication of single-use plastics that hopefully will be approved by all interested parties at the steering committee meeting that is anticipated to take place in October.”

The campaigners also continue to raise awareness about plastic pollution among local residents and university students.

Recently, the initiative had a presence at the farmers’ market held on Market Street on August 24 and the Craigtoun Charity Weekend.

Ms Biliouri-Grant manned the information stall, advising visitors on various aspects of plastics pollution, raising awareness on the issue and making suggestions on what alternative products to single-use plastics.

The initiative is led by the St Andrews Environmental Network, in partnership with the Environmental Office of the University of St Andrews and Transition UStA.

Network manager, Jane Kell, said: “It was great seeing people from all over Scotland engaging in discussion about what they can do to deal with plastic pollution.”