St Albans MP Anne Main led a delegation of MPs from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Prevention of Plastic Waste to the Veolia plastics recycling plant in Dagenham today. Anne established the all-party group earlier this year to look at the damage plastic waste is doing to our environment and ways of reducing this in the future.

Mrs Main’s group were invited to visit Veolia’s Dagenham recycling site to see the work they are doing to recycle plastic waste to be sold on and reused. The group were given a brief presentation on the facility and then they were given a guided tour of the site by Veolia’s Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, Richard Kirkman. Mr Kirkman showed the group how the milk bottles they recycle are collected, broken up and then sorted by colour. The MPs were also shown the final product of their recycling process which turns the waste into small plastic balls that can be re-shaped into recycled bottles or containers.

Mrs Main said, ‘This is an excellent facility and Veolia are doing very good work to help reduce our plastic waste and create a more circular system for our plastic usage. This site focused on milk bottle recycling and the technology and equipment they use is state-of-the-art.

‘The APPG appreciate that we all need to make changes to the way we use plastics and we need to reduce our usage of it as much as possible but when it is used, it is great that a facility like this can recycle the bottles and ultimately reduce the amount going to landfill or our oceans.’ 

As chair of the APPG, Anne also recently met with Sian Sutherland from A Plastic Planet and The Nappy Alliance. Both groups have been created to reduce our reliance on plastics and stop the dumping of waste plastic and other materials in our oceans.

‘This is a major issue for everyone all across the world now. The UK government are taking this issue seriously and as a group we will be keeping the pressure on them to ensure we reduce our plastic waste in this country. St Albans council also work incredibly hard to improve our recycling rate and that should be encouraged all across the UK’ said Mrs Main.

‘We have all seen the documentaries and harrowing photographs of the damage we are doing to our oceans through irresponsible dumping of plastic waste. If we want to see change, we need to alter our behaviour as consumers. The government certainly have a part to play but we must all work together to clean up our oceans and reduce the damage we have caused so far.’