Croyde announces ban on cheap polystyrene bodyboards.
CROYDE BANS CHEAP POLYSTYRENE BODYBOARDS!
Third UK beach to stop selling cheap polystyrene bodyboards.
Plastic Free Torridge, Plastic Free North Devon and Keep Britain Tidy’s Ocean Recovery Project are today announcing that Croyde is the third UK beachside village to ban selling cheap polystyrene bodyboards. Every independent retailer has pledged that they will not be selling these items.
The campaign to ban the sale of cheap polystyrene boards, started in October 2019, has attracted widespread support across northern Devon with both area MP’s along with District, Town and Parish Councils calling on local retailers to remove these items from sale. The campaign now has support from both the national Green Party and the National Liberal Democratic Party. Over 97% of 1,600 local residents polled have called for a change to be made to stop the damage these boards are causing to our natural environment.
Cheap polystyrene bodyboards have blighted coastlines across the world for decades. Annually, hundreds of thousands of low-cost body boards are discarded on beaches across the world. Keep Britain Tidy report that 16,000 cheap polystyrene bodyboards ended up discarded on UK beaches every year. These “sub £10” brightly coloured boards, known to break easily often after only one or two uses, are invariably discarded on UK beaches. These 16,000 single use boards create a large amount of waste in the UK and create a huge carbon footprint. These boards, made from a block of standard polystyrene wrapped in brightly printed nylon cloth, are sourced from China, transported thousands of miles only to snap within minutes of use. Polystyrene is fragile and crumbles easily posing danger to sea and shore life alike as animals mistake these small white polystyrene balls for food. Once in the ocean, algae and small organisms grow on each ball adding weight causing the nuggets to sink and present itself as food to fish. The human health threat from polystyrene comes from one of its building blocks Styrene. In 2018, the World Health Organisation reclassified Styrene from a “possible carcinogen” to a “probable carcinogen” – a probable cause of cancer.
“We can announce today that Croyde is the third UK seaside village to have a self-imposed ban on cheap polystyrene bodyboards”, confirmed Anne-Marie Eveleigh, Operations Director, Plastic Free North Devon. ‘’All shops and beach retailers will not be selling this type of bodyboard this coming summer. With Westward Ho! and Saunton Beach already introducing the voluntary ban Croyde is showing its support for the movement too. This is fantastic news and we applaud each and every business.
Phil Strahan is the lead PFND volunteer working with all the businesses in Croyde to get the voluntary ban in place. All the businesses in Croyde had already made the decision to not sell these boards so Phil’s job was to formalise their decisions and to congratulate their forward thinking.
Phil stated that ‘All the businesses were all completely on-board with the reasons why. It’s a fantastic example of businesses making choices that are not profit driven but driven for the love of our environment and the beautiful place we all call home. We’re a small community who see first-hand the plastic and polystyrene that ends up on our beaches. Our local small businesses have stepped up, made the right choices to make a difference. Now we need big businesses like supermarkets and Pound Shops to ban the sale of these body boards and to put the planet before profit.’
“The campaign is now getting real momentum”, stated Andrew Cross, Campaign Lead. “The effort northern Devon business owners have shown so far is truly inspiring. ”.
For further details and comment, please contact Andrew Cross on 07886854196.
If you're interested in signing up as a Protect our Playground hire partner or interested in stocking some in your holiday accommodation please get in touch >>>> plasticfreenorthdevon@gmail.com
To help us encourage parliament to ban the sale of cheap polystyrene bodyboards across the country, sign our national parliamentary petition >>>>www.bancheapbodyboards.co.uk