The war on plastic could ramp up in Congleton, as an elected representative wants bottled water out of council meetings.

A Cheshire East councillor has criticised the authority for providing plastic bottles of water at meetings and urged it to stop using single use plastics.

Cllr Kate Parkinson (Con) has also asked for information about the amount of plastic waste the council itself generates and she wants to see the bottles banned from all the council's leisure centres.

Speaking at Wednesday's meeting of the full council at Crewe Lifestyle Centre, the High Legh councillor said: "In 2019 this council agreed to move to net zero carbon by 2025 and has a programme of measures in place to try and meet this deadline.

"One of the simplest of measures to reduce our carbon footprint, and drastically reduce our potential to pollute the environment with non-biodegradable plastic, would be to cease using single use plastic items.

"I have noticed single use plastic bottles are being placed on our desks in quite a lot of meetings. I would have thought that, at the council, one of the first changes that would be made in our efforts to protect the environment would be to stop this."

She added: "I've asked Ansa [the council's wholly-owned company responsible for waste collection] to supply data for the amount of tonnage from plastic waste Cheshire East Council uses in its operations and I'm still waiting for this information."

Plastic bottles of water have been provided to councillors at some meetings over recent months – although glass bottles are also used at times.

At Wednesday's meeting, the day Cllr Parkinson's motion about single use plastic was on the agenda, there were none.

Cllr Parkinson said: "I'm pleased to see in full council papers that arrived last week that all members were asked to bring their own water to this meeting.

"However, I'd also like to point out that the water cartons that we have been issued with today, if we wish, are actually worse than single use plastic bottles.

"There are so few recycling places that can separate the paper from the aluminium inside and the cardboard and the plastic that sticks it together, so therefore it's making it even harder to recycle than plastic bottles.

"We need to be responsible for ourselves and bring our own flasks."

Cheshire East have pledged to be carbon neutral by 2025, but creating plastic water bottles involves carbon dioxide.

Estimates reported by sciencing.com show that one 500-millilitre (0.53 quarts) plastic bottle of water has a total carbon footprint equal to 82.8 grams (about 3 ounces) of carbon dioxide.

While glass bottles of water also create emissions, they do not add to the plastic pollution of the sea, with damaging micro plastics that affect biodiversity and the food chain.

Despite some Cheshire East Council meetings having a bar, water jugs of tap water and glasses are not used.

Perhaps it is COVID-concerns, or another reason, but the environmentally-damaging bottles are still in use.

We have contacted Congleton Town Council about whether they use single-use plastic bottles.

Congleton: Do you use your own reusable water bottle about town? Or have you stopped because of COVID? Should Cheshire East Council catch-up?

See also: Air quality in Congleton: Exhausting operation to begin to crackdown on idling.

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