AN MP preparing to change the law in a bid to reduce plastic pollution got specialist advice from two York shopkeepers.

Alistair Carmichael's Plastics Pollution Bill is due to have its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday.

When he visited York for the Lib Dem Spring Conference the MP visited The Owl and Monkey on Heslington Road to hear about the problems its owners have with manufacturers and learn how they could be solved.

Matt Harris, who runs the ethical goods shop with his wife Helen, welcomed the chance to have an input into the law-making process.

"We need clarity," he said. "I think it reducing pollution is going to be a slow process, with small changes. But if everyone can make small changes, it will help."

He said many companies wrap their goods in plastic unnecessarily.

Although there is a mass of information online and elsewhere about recycling the many different kinds of plastic packaging in use, there is little help on its accuracy.

The couple use their spending power to reduce single use plastic by actively seek out manufacturers who don't use plastic packaging when buying stock and try and persuade others to do likewise.

He urged Mr Carmichael to include measures in the Bill to make plastic manufacturers describe how their products can be recycled better.

"That is what we are working towards," said Mr Carmichael. "We will get there eventually."

Mr Harris said in some cases, 90 per cent of the environmentally damaging effect of a product is from the processes including manufacture that it goes through before it reaches the consumer.

The MP's proposals include a plastics pollution commissioner to oversee pollution reduction efforts and to set targets.

His Bill is one of a long list due for their second reading on Friday.

Also on hand for the visit was the Lord Mayor of York, Cllr Keith Orrell who, as The Press reported earlier this month, met with Prof Callum Roberts, an advisor to the BBC’s iconic ‘Blue Planet’ series, at the Mansion House.


The pair spoke out in support of the York restaurants, cafés, pubs and other businesses which have joined ‘refill’ schemes to let people refill empty bottles with tap water. The aim is to reduce the number of plastic bottles and cups thrown away.


“A billion plastic bottles filled with water are sold world-wide every day, with the majority discarded when empty,” Cllr Orrell said.

“Refill aims to stop this appalling waste with its associated environmental pollution by enabling people to refill their empty bottles rather than replace them.”