We are the party who introduced the 5p charge for plastic bags and set up the Green Investment Bank. We led the way on investment in renewables and in green technologies. So what’s next?

Party members would have received a recent newsletter with a link to the party’s vision on how we can save our seas from plastic pollution.

We are calling for the government to commit to a Plastic-Free Charter.

We need to tackle our throw-away culture by providing incentives to reduce, reuse and recycle.

I couldn’t agree more.

Aberporth, in West Wales, has decided to live without plastic. Shops are now selling bamboo toothbrushes, takeaways using paper straws and wooden disposable cutlery. I am inspired. Definitely the way forward. There are green alternatives to our use of plastics.

Eurostar is planning to halve its use of plastic. It will start with all the free water bottle it hands out to (some) passengers and also address the packaging of food items.

Perhaps we should all book the milkround, having our milk delivered in bottles rather than purchasing it in polluting plastic?

And what do you think about adopting Norway’s plastic bottle recycling scheme? I think it’s a great idea.

Lib Dem peer Lord Tony Greaves led a recent debate in the Lords on China’s ban on plastic waste imports. He said

I remember back in the Liberal Party in the 1970s, when we declared that we should as a country move towards zero waste. The in-phrase is now “zero untreatable waste”; people seem to be catching up with us. We have the 5p plastic-bag charge in operation, which I remind noble Lords was a product of the Liberal Democrats in the coalition Government. The Daily Mail likes to claim credit for it, but who cares really?

…The statistics are eye-watering. Between 2012 and 2016 the UK exported 2.5 million tonnes of scrap plastic to China. The developed world consigned some 7.3 million tonnes of used plastic to China in 2016 alone. China’s scrap paper imports in 2016 were a massive 28 million tonnes, 3.8 million of that from the UK.

The new ban—which, I have to say, in many ways I welcome because it is making people wake up to the problem—threatens to destroy the business model of the UK waste industry together with its supply chain, and threatens to leave local authorities firmly in the lurch.

…We have short-term solutions based on short-term financial benefits, setting aside longer-term environmental damage and paying no attention to risks…. It is a product of global neoliberal economics and a classic case of its fundamental flaws.

…We now have an opportunity for a better system in a whole range of environmental areas, including recycling.

So it’s beyond our use of disposable, non-recyclable, coffee cups, which of course is a real issue. We need to look at how we use all plastics and sort it out.

* Kirsten Johnson was the PPC for Oxford East in the 2017 General Election. She is a pianist and composer at www.kirstenjohnsonpiano.com.