From Marion Montgomery
Stonehaven has joined a network of communities across the UK who are leading the way to tackle throw away plastic at source.
The town has been awarded Plastic Free Community status by marine conservation charity, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), in recognition of the work it has done to start reducing the impact of single-use plastic on the environment.
Plastic Free Stonehaven, started by local Councillor, Sarah Dickinson in November 2022 and led by local resident Marion Montgomery – who also founded Paws on Plastic, a charity promoting the idea of dog walkers picking up a few bits of litter on their daily walks – has been hugely successful in gaining support from residents and businesses in the Stonehaven community for its campaign.
Registering with the SAS Plastic Free Communities movement, Plastic Free Stonehaven pulled together key organisations and businesses in the town to put in place a five-point plan. The objectives include: setting up a community led steering group; instigating the SAS Plastic Free Schools education programme; and getting local community council commitment and working with local businesses, organisations and community groups to spread the word and minimise the amount of disposable plastics they use.
Marion Montgomery of Plastic Free Stonehaven said: “It’s been fantastic to see the support in Stonehaven, both among businesses, community groups and individual residents alike looking for ways to reduce their use of single use plastics and also in terms of coming out and participating in our monthly beach cleans with Paws on Plastic SCO51306 on the first Saturday of every month.
”We regularly get 40-50 volunteers turning out, including families with children who love getting a stamp on their beach clean reward cards. Finds include everything from welly boots to fishing nets and everyone gets a real buzz from doing their own wee bit to protect our town’s beautiful environment.
“We’ve also enjoyed litter picks with a number of local groups so it’s awesome to see a real community effort around the campaign to keep our town clean and safe for all. To date in 2024 15 cleans, 628kgs waste removed with 625 volunteer hours. (The total removed at monthly cleans during the whole of 2023 was 261kg!)”
There are now seven small, independent Stonehaven businesses accredited as ‘Plastic Free Champions’ by Surfers against Sewage – Godsman Graphics, Lou Sells Preloved Labels, Bayview Apartments, Replenish, My Beautiful Caravan, How Bizarre How Bizarre and Carma. We also have another eight businesses registered and working on achieving the award.
Businesses are required to list three ways in which they have removed single use plastic items from their business. Examples of things our plastic free champions have done are – choosing reusable coffee cups instead of disposables, offering refillable shampoo/conditioner bottles instead of single use, reusing packaging materials, offering paper bags instead of plastic, only using reusable water bottles, offering plastic free gift cards and sourcing products from suppliers with less packaging.
Plastic Free Stonehaven has successfully recruited a wide range of local groups and organisations as ‘community allies’ who have acted as ambassadors of the campaign, encouraging the support of the wider community. Organisations include Stonehaven Horizon Group, Stonehaven & District Men’s Shed, Stonehaven Youth Club, Stonehaven Community Collective, Mearns FM, Stonehaven Community Fire Station, Paws on Plastic SCO51306, 1st Stonehaven Scout Group, Stonehaven Explorer Scouts, Stonehaven Parkrun, Stonehaven Library, Kincardineshire Development Partnership, Stonehaven Carronside Church, Fair Trade Stonehaven, Friends of Forest Drive Park and Stonehaven Fetteresso Church. This has also included Mackie Academy which has registered with the Plastic Free Schools Programme and is itself working towards gaining Plastic Free Schools status.
In addition to the regular community beach cleans with Paws on Plastic, both Plastic Free Stonehaven and Paws on Plastic have also run individual litterpicks for 1st Stonehaven Explorer Scouts, Stonehaven District Guides, including Guides, Brownies and Rainbows), Mackie Academy, Mill o’Forest Primary School and Arduthie Primary School and Lloyd’s Register. Other events have included a ‘Soft Plastics Unwrap Event’ at Stonehaven David Street Coop store and a ‘Recycled Christmas Craft’ event at the Scout Hut in January which was well attended.
Marion said: ‘It’s amazing to finally gain Plastic Free Status. We are a small team of three volunteers -myself, Councillor Sarah Dickinson and Fiona Basford – with regular support for the beach cleans also from my husband Alistair.
“It is however, very much an achievement for the whole Stonehaven community given the huge widespread support from across the town. A huge thank you to all who have given their support in all the different ways, from sharing social media posts, to inviting us along to speak at events or to turning out to our beach cleans.
“This award is for Stonehaven as a town and really puts us on the map as a town that cares for the environment and is willing to take action to protect it.
She added: “This is only the start of our ‘Plastic Free’ journey – of course our town now isn’t completely plastic free. This is the first step towards that. It’s the start of conversations, of gradually replacing single use items with reusables.
“The fantastic thing is that these are often simple swaps that actually often save money and are far better than single use options.”
Our next beach cleans are on Monday, 29th July 1-2pm (an extra one for summer) and Saturday, 3rd August 10-11am to which all are invited. We are also currently planning a celebration event at the Stonehaven Scout Hut on Sunday, 1st September which we will be announcing details of shortly.
The Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Community network aims to free the places where we live from single-use. Using the five point plan the aim is to empower communities to kick start local grassroots action, which can then be built upon.
The marine conservation charity, based in St Agnes in Cornwall, says it wants to unite communities to tackle avoidable plastic from the beach all the way back to the brands and businesses who create it. It says it is not about removing all plastic from our lives, but kicking our addiction to throwaway plastic and changing the system that produces it.
Rachel Yates, SAS Plastic Free Communities Project Manager, said: “It’s great to see the work that Stonehaven has done to reduce the availability of avoidable plastics, raise awareness and encourage people to refill and reuse.
“We have over seven hundred communities across the UK working to reduce single use plastic and the impact it has on our environment. Every step those communities and the individuals in them take is a step towards tackling the problem at source, challenging our throwaway culture and encouraging the habit and system changes we need to see.”