An easy solution to the mountain of completely avoidable single-use plastic waste

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‘In the UK we make our way through an estimated 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups a year, and over 7.7 billion plastic water bottles’ (Getty Images)

I am writing to encourage your readers to get involved in World Refill Day on Wednesday 16 June and take action to help tackle plastic pollution.

We have all had to get used to adapting to new ways of operating since the pandemic began. As lockdowns have lifted, we have sadly seen a massive increase in plastic pollution with take-away packaging a big part of the problem. In the UK we make our way through an estimated 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups a year, and over 7.7 billion plastic water bottles. These are littering our streets, our rivers and ending up in our oceans, harming marine life and polluting our beaches.

And there really is an easy solution to help stop this mountain of completely avoidable single-use plastic waste. If we choose to reuse, making it our daily habit to carry our reusable coffee cups and water bottles, we can individually have a major impact on plastic pollution. Reusables are perfectly safe to use when we are out and about and are being accepted by the UK’s major coffee chains and independent retailers.

By choosing to reuse this #WorldRefillDay – and adopting reuse instead of single-use as our new normal moving forwards – we can all make a positive impact on protecting our planet’s precious natural resources. Thank you.

Alison Steadman OBE

I agree with the article “World Oceans Day: Why is there so much plastic in the ocean?” (8 June). As a surfer I witness the devastation that plastics have on the ocean when I see microbeads and plastic pieces washed ashore with visible bite marks chewed by marine life and the evidence of the day trippers’ plastic litter left behind on the beach.

Plastics are not biodegradable and can last for centuries. The shocking bit is that every second 400kg of plastics pollute the marine ecosystem. Plastic packaging, nets and bags have been found inside 462 individual species of whales and dolphins (56 per cent of the population) and all the plastics in the oceans eventually find their way into the food chain and can end up inside of us.

Whales provide a vital fight against the climate crisis. A whale during its lifetime can absorb as much carbon as 30,000 trees and they also provide the nutrients that phytoplankton plants need to produce oxygen and these plants produce 50 to 80 percent of the earth’s oxygen. Tragically, it is estimated that over a lifetime, every great whale lost is equivalent to bulldozing over 3 million sq m of forest.

We need to take responsibility to reduce our plastic waste because it’s killing us and our planet.

Jeannette Schael

Tadley, Hampshire

Meaty issues for G7 leaders

I have just read your editorial, “Thanks to the G7, there is a wind of change in the Cornish air – and Joe Biden is the man for this moment” (11 June). My view on the matter is that a key focus of the G7 summit should be how to encourage a gradual shift to plant-based eating among the population. Animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91 per cent of Amazon destruction, takes up one third of the planet’s ice-free land, as well as being the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones and habitat destruction.

In the words of Joseph Poore, the lead researcher of the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the relationship between animal agriculture and the environment at the university of Oxford: “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use, and water use.”

Talking about animal agriculture seems to be quite the taboo on the political scene, but it cannot be ignored when it comes to talking about climate change.

Gregor Hartl Watters

Address supplied

That the prime minister chartered a private jet from London to Cornwall to attend the G7 summit isn’t even the worst of it (“Of course Boris Johnson took a private jet to Cornwall – he doesn’t give a damn what we think anymore”, 10 June). Meaty meals of lamb, chicken, and offal (haggis) are lined up to be served to world leaders during the event – even though animal agriculture is among the very things that are devastating the environment.

Serving meat at an event aimed at tackling climate change is like offering cigarettes at a health convention – it’s unhelpful and irresponsible. The UN has stated that animal agriculture is responsible for nearly a fifth of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions and that raising animals for food is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global”. A widespread switch to vegan eating could cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 70 per cent by 2050, all while preventing animals from suffering on filthy farms and dying in slaughterhouses after their throats are slit.

If our leaders won’t lead by example, it’s up to us to take personal responsibility to help prevent the worst effects of climate change. The easiest, most effective way to do this is simply by choosing vegan meals.

Elisa Allen

Director, Peta foundation

What does it have to do with Biden?

I can understand the EU objecting to changes to the Northern Ireland protocol. I can also understand our government wishing to revisit it on the grounds that it does not work well for the people who reside in Northern Ireland. What I don’t understand is what has this to do with the US, a country that is not a party to the treaty. Joe Biden seems to think he is justified in interfering in the affairs of other countries and the media is completely on board with that; no eyebrows are raised. I wonder what would happen if Putin or Xi Jinping decided to stick their oar in.

Fawzi Ibrahim

London NW2

Double standards

Nicola Sturgeon’s hatred for Trump was well documented, childishly declaring “don’t haste ye back” when he left office this year, much to the applause of her sycophantic fellow MSPs.

But where is the same hatred for Biden? US foreign policy has remained largely unchanged, except it has a more toothy and suave grin. Tens of thousands of asylum seekers are still held in facilities across the US. The vice president emphatically told Guatemalans “don’t come here”. Even the much-maligned Trumpian theory that Covid-19 is man-made is now a plausible explanation for the origin of the virus.

But will the first minister utter a word about this as she did during her “orange man bad” epoch? Could it be that it was all just virtue signaling and based on personal prejudice? Surely not.

David Bone

South Ayrshire