On Friday, amidst the buzz of the National Eisteddfod in Llanrwst this year, I was fortunate enough to take part in an important discussion about littering and plastic waste.
On the panel were Talulah, Youth Parliament member for Clwyd South, Llyr Gruffydd, Huw Lloyd, Dr Einir Young and Jerry Hunter.Â
Seeing adults and young people taking an interest in our discussion at the Societies’ Pavilion was great, as raising awareness of the climate emergency is vital. I had lots of interesting conversations with members of the public following the discussion, and many people were keen to share their ideas on how to reduce the use of plastic and the impacts they have experienced directly as a result of climate change.
With five of us on the panel, many different suggestions were made, although the general view was very similar - that action is now needed.
Dr Einir Young referred to using only water, and no shampoo, when washing hair, or using a shampoo bar instead of buying a plastic bottle several times a year. In addition, a taxation on plastics was discussed, putting pressure on supermarkets and their suppliers to be more responsible in their use of plastic packaging.
Llyr's experience of learning about alternative methods to create plastic-like material from farm waste was also interesting.
Everyone agreed that, while it is important to continue to recycle, it is far more important to reduce the need to do so by trying to discourage the use of single-use plastic as a matter of urgency.
It was great to be able to contribute to the debate, and I certainly feel that I learned a lot from this very interesting experience.
