Meet the selfless people making Hayle plastic free

cornwalllive.com

• 6 hours ago

Godrevy, Hayle

Businesses that are already Plastic Free Champions in Hayle are Godrevy Café, Salt Bar...

Meet the selfless people making Hayle plastic free

A bold reinvention of a town renowned for its golden sands

If the county is successful it will be one of the first in the UK to become fully plastic free.

In January we revealed that the first community to go plastic free this year was the Roseland peninsula.

Now we can reveal the second of our 12 plastic-free communities … Hayle.

Annette Eatock, Hadden Page and councillor Sophie Johnson are part of Plastic Free Hayle, the latest community in Cornwall to achieve plastic free status (Image: Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

The statement on their Facebook page says all you need to know: “Our aim is to encourage individuals, community groups and businesses in our local community to reduce our contribution to the single use plastic problem. Working collectively will increase our impact on this crisis that affects our beaches, oceans and wildlife.”

The steering group leading this bold reinvention of Hayle is led by Annette Eatock and Hadden Page with Sophie Johnson, Steve Hagan, Ryan Chitty and Lisa Goodall.

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Annette told Cornwall Live: “I first started to do beach cleans in 2014, then became a regional rep so it was a natural progression to become the plastic-free community lead for Hayle a couple of years ago.

“It has been a long process but we are bringing all the people in Hayle together.

“The reason why I wanted to do join in that campaign was the obvious, natural thing to do. I was already doing beach cleans and speaking to people in the community who are passionate about reducing single use plastics. Hayle’s prime for it really.”

Annette Eatock set up Plastic Free Hayle after being heavily involved in beach cleans (Image: Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

Sophie Johnson, who sits on the town council, added: “The council started the process with Annette and it has really picked up in the last six months.

“I’m passionate about the environment so we also have a climate action group. We are working together with local businesses to help reduce single use plastics and also reducing the carbon footprint; we’re looking at the future.

“I think what’s really great about Plastic Free Hayle is that there are three steps that businesses can make so it’s quite simple for them to adopt. It’s so good to see so many have already done it.”

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Businesses that are already Plastic Free Champions in Hayle are Godrevy Café, Salt Bar Star Inn at St Erth, Blue Bay Café at Sandy Acres, Bys Vyken Events, Waters Edge Retreat and Thrift.

Businesses that are working towards it include Birdies Bistro, Gallery Coffee Bar, Makers Boutique, The Naked Sheep, Rockyboard, The Cornish Arms, Brett & Leni and Big Pink Tree.

Hadden Page is one of those leading Plastic Free Hayle (Image: Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

Hadden said: “Beach cleans are planned all the time, into the summer, but the big event we’ve got coming up is a party on March 6 to celebrate our first big goal – to become plastic free in Hayle.”

The event takes place from 7pm at the Cornish Arms and features live music and a lot more.

Renowned for its ‘golden sands’, how badly is Hayle affected by plastic pollution?

Annette said: “The level of plastics on the beach varies through the year. Storms bring more marine litter on to the beach while during the summer we get more leftover rubbish from visitors, unfortunately.

“You might look at the beach and go ‘it looks alright’ … the last beach clean we thought it was okay. But once you get down near the tide line you find pieces of litter which are the most dangerous. They’re the ones that will enter the food chain and affect marine wildlife the most because it will be ingested and cause all those problems.”

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Hugo Tagholm, the CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, said earlier this year about the plastic free initiative: “Cornwall has been at the forefront of tackling the plastic pollution crisis, from the thousands of beach cleaners taking action to protect our unique and beautiful coastline, through to the Plastic Free Community movement, the launch of the Refill movement and the support of MPs, the council, local businesses and the media.

“Driving forward the Plastic Free Cornwall movement is a vital step which will address not only plastic pollution but more importantly tackle climate change impacts, support the local economy and create a new sustainable community movement at the forefront of positive change for our world.”

You can find out more about Plastic Free Hayle on their Facebook page.

Making Cornwall Plastic Free 2020

Cornwall Live has launched a Making Cornwall Plastic Free campaign alongside environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage and plastic free movement Plastic Free Cornwall.

The campaign will last for the duration of 2020 and its main aim is to help Cornwall achieve it's official plastic free status by the end of the year, making one of the first county's in the UK to do so.

You can get involved yourself by signing our pledges to help make you live a more plastic-free life day-to-day, you can donate money to SAS to help them with their cause of the plastic free community initiative and you can also sign up to taking part in a SAS beach clean this year.

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