Plastic Free North Devon is a local environmental charity (Reg No: 1182464) whose mission is to protect and improve our environment through community-led action.
Founded as a community group in 2017, we aimed to inspire North Devon residents, tourists and businesses to drastically reduce their consumption of single-use plastic, remove it from the environment and dispose of it properly. We aimed to connect people with their natural surroundings through conversations, education and events to inspire residents and visitors to protect what our very existence depends on.
Whilst this mission still holds true, the way in which we tackle our mission has evolved dramatically and whilst we still organise clean ups and educate about single use plastic, we have taken a solutions based approach and fought hard to develop how we facilitate our communities to take action on the things they care about.
Plastic is an amazing material that plays a positive role in many aspects of our modern life. However, the characteristics that make it such a useful material (its strength and durability in particular) and its chemical properties make it a toxic, hazardous substance that lasts for hundreds of years when it gets into the natural environment.
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320+ million tonnes of new plastic are manufactured annually – this figure is increasing.
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40% of the plastic produced is for single use packaging.
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8.3 billion tonnes of plastic produced since the 1950s. Of which 9% has been recycled, 12% has been burnt and 79% is in the environment as landfill or litter.
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8 – 12 million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean annually. Of which 80% washes and blows in from the land.
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1+ million seabirds, 100,000+ sea mammals and turtles are killed annually by marine plastic pollution.