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Oadby recognised for fight against plastic pollution

Published: Friday, 16 February 2024

(L-R) Claire Gimson from Rosie’s Childrenswear, Angela Nelson from Chestnuts Coffee Shop, Mandy Penfold from the Steering Group, Shabir Ibrahim from S.I.Opticals, Mayor Cllr Rosemarie Adams and Shailesh Panchmatia from the Steering Group with their certificates

Oadby has been accredited as a Plastic Free Community, recognising local residents’ commitment to tackling single-use plastic and making the town a more environmentally friendly place to live and work.

Plastic Free Communities is a national initiative led by Surfers Against Sewage designed to fight plastic pollution everywhere from beaches to businesses, and leaders of Plastic Free Oadby were recently presented with their accreditation by the Mayor of Oadby & Wigston.

Oadby has been working towards Plastic Free status since November 2019 and has completed a five-step toolkit to reduce single-use plastics throughout the town, which included working with local businesses, community groups and Oadby & Wigston Borough Council (OWBC).

The effort was led by the Plastic Free Oadby Steering Group which includes representatives from the Rotary Club of Oadby and other local community groups, as well as OWBC councillor Carl Martin.

Twelve businesses in the town signed up to be Business Champions, pledging to remove at least three single-use plastic items from their businesses, including Epic Accessories which made a switch to paper packaging, and Zeph’s Café which replaced polystyrene takeaway packaging with sustainable cardboard.

Work with Community Allies included litter picks, displays in the library and at local events, and engagement with schools and groups such as Brownies and sports and social clubs.

Mandy Penfold, Co-Chair of the Plastic Free Oadby Steering Group said: “I’m so proud that after four years of work engaging with local residents and businesses we have been able to achieve Plastic Free Community status, and I would like to thank all of those who helped us to reach this milestone.”

Shailesh Panchmatia, also Co-Chair of the Plastic Free Oadby Steering Group, added: “Becoming a Plastic Free Community is not the final step on the journey however and plastic pollution remains one of the biggest threats to our environment on a global level, and it is critical that we keep working to tackle this.

“Eliminating single-use plastics sounds like an overwhelming task, but if we all played our part in making small changes we could make a real difference together.”

OWBC Councillor Carl Martin said: “This is a great step towards making our borough more sustainable, and I would like to congratulate Plastic Free Oadby for achieving this accreditation and for all their work encouraging the community to reduce plastic use.

“The impact of plastic pollution on the environment cannot be overstated, and we all need to take action on both an individual and community level to fight this.

“I really encourage all local businesses and residents to think about any swaps that they can make in their daily lives to eliminate a source of single-use plastic, as Plastic Free Oadby have shown the small changes really do add up.”

(Pictured from left to right: Claire Gimson from Rosie’s Childrenswear, Angela Nelson from Chestnuts Coffee Shop, Mandy Penfold from the Steering Group, Shabir Ibrahim from S.I.Opticals, Mayor Cllr Rosemarie Adams and Shailesh Panchmatia from the Steering Group.)