Walking through the woods this half term, the bright blue of a sweet packet catches my eye amongst the autumnal leaves.  As I start to collect bits and pieces of rubbish lying around it, I notice how much litter is single use plastic; a takeaway tray, a scrunched up water bottle, a crisp packet, a blue vinyl glove.  Before long I had filled a bag full, but it was barely a drop in the ocean of what is there, littering our natural spaces.  Plastic chemicals are leaching into our soil, rivers are polluted by plastic debris and sea birds and marine mammals are choking on the millions of tonnes that end up in our oceans.  The UK generates more plastic waste per person than any other country, apart from the USA – we have to do something about it now.  I have been seriously attempting to reduce my use of plastic since the start of the year, using the waste hierachy triangle as a guide to how I can break my dependence on this finite resource that hangs around forever. (more…)