A new impact report released today by Plastic Patrol, a non-profit sitting on the intersection of wellbeing and the environment, reveals the extent of single-use litter and identifies Falmouth residents as some of the most active litter pickers in the UK.

64,913 pieces of litter recorded by the public in the Plastic Patrol app over a nine-month period reveals the extent of single-use litter in the UK and drills down into cities and towns including Falmouth.

Top five polluting brands in UK: Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Walkers, Mars and Tesco.

Top five polluting types in Falmouth: plastic packaging, polystyrene / Styrofoam, cigarette butts, plastic fragments and metal fragments

Plastic makes up 83% of overall litter recorded in the UK.

5th February 2020: A new UK-wide report from Plastic Patrol reveals the extent of single-use litter across the UK, following the introduction of the Environment Bill to Parliament that sets to tackle environmental challenges, including plastic pollution. Plastic Patrol is a non-profit organisation that sits at the intersection of wellbeing and environment and combines community volunteering with technology to collect data on single-use litter.

The report, part of a five-year study, presents the analysis of data on 64,913 pieces of litter recorded in the Plastic Patrol app by volunteers up and down the country over a nine-month period from 5th April 2019 to 31st December 2019. Falmouth is identified as one of the most engaged towns in tackling the litter crisis, collecting and recording 787 pieces of litter.

The top five most frequently found types of litter in Falmouth were:

Plastic packaging (19 per cent)

Polystyrene / Styrofoam (19 per cent)

Cigarette butts (16 per cent)

Plastic fragments >2.5 cm (12 per cent)

Metal fragments (6 per cent)

UK-wide, the top five most frequently found types of litter were: plastic packaging (21%), plastic fragments (10%), cigarette butts (9%) and plastic bottles (9%).

Highly recyclable items – often consumed 'on the go' - such as metal drinks cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles all featured in the top ten types of litter, indicating that current recycling infrastructure and incentives are inadequate.

85% of plastic bags recorded across the UK were unbranded, characteristic of those handed out by small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), such as independent grocery stores, exempt from the current 5p plastic bag charge. It is estimated that SMEs hand out 3.6 billion single-use plastic bags annually.

Cadbury and Budweiser were found to be in the top five polluting brands in Falmouth. 

A total of 1065 brands were recorded by the public in the UK, with Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Walkers, Mars and Tesco found to be the top five polluting brands overall.

Lizzie Carr, Founder of Plastic Patrol, commented:

"These results, obtained across the UK over nine months, serve as a crucial wake-up call to us all. It is clear that now is the time for Government, industry and individuals to step up our ambitions and act accordingly to tackle the single-use litter crisis, which continues despite increasing awareness.

"This report makes a number of recommendations, including a nationwide ban on plastic bags, and a call for clearer producer responsibilities. We are encouraged to see that there are powers to introduce extended producer responsibility schemes in the Environment Bill, but the devil will be in the detail as to how they are implemented.

"We will, therefore, be monitoring the Environment Bill closely as it makes its way through Parliament. This five-year series of reports by Plastic Patrol will be essential for assessing the adequacy of policy interventions and industry's sustainability commitments in an important decade for environmental protection."

Professor Janine Illian from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Glasgow added: 

"With nearly 65,000 pieces of litter recorded by volunteers for Plastic Patrol, this report highlights the potential of communities coming together to collect data and its importance in not only informing us about the extent of the single-use litter crisis but also the complex challenges for statistical and interdisciplinary research alike."

Following on from the results of the report, Plastic Patrol recommends the UK Government implements:

A reformed waste producer responsibility coupled with a transparent regulatory framework

An 'all in' Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) that includes all single-use materials and container types and sizes.

A nationwide ban on plastic bags.

The Environment Bill had its first reading in Parliament on 30 January and includes proposals on introducing new extended producer responsibility schemes, a deposit return scheme and charges for specific single-use plastic items.

View the Plastic Patrol report by pressing the red button down below.