WATCH: Can Jersey gain ‘Plastic Free Coastline’ status?

Tuesday 30 January 2018

Can you live without takeaway coffee cups, plastic straws and packaging? That’s the challenge being put to you by politicians, campaigners and surfers as they want to sign Jersey up to a national campaign to cut plastic.

The tragic consequences of plastic pollution were highlighted in David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2 series, with footage of a turtle tangled up in plastic rubbish leaving many people feeling "haunted."

This turtle was rescued by the #BluePlanet2 crew. As it wasn’t injured and could swim, it was released straight away.#BluePlanet2 pic.twitter.com/XyxcxHlEjA

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) November 19, 2017

Video: The shocking impact of plastic pollution highlighted in BBC television series Blue Planet 2 left Deputy Luce "wanting to take action." (Blue Planet)

It also had an impact on Jersey’s Environment Minister, Deputy Steve Luce, so he’s now teamed up with Surfers against Sewage and environment campaigners in a bid to make Jersey a largest plastic-free community.

Deputy Luce said: “It is quite an ambition, but it’s important to set yourself goals and it’s important to try really hard to achieve those goals and while we may never become absolutely plastic free, I think we can do so much more than we currently do. Most of the plastic that washes up on our shoreline doesn’t come from us, but that’s no reason to not try, it’s no reason to not clear it up and the other thing we can do of course is to look at our environmental behaviour towards plastic and really examine quite closely what we are purchasing, what we are using and can we do it in a different way.”

Video: Deputy Steve Luce explaining how Jersey can reduce its use of plastic.

Deputy Luce wants the island to sign up to the national campaign run by Surfers against Sewage in June, which will see the States, campaigners and islanders work together to achieve a tailor-made challenge. They will need to demonstrate public and political support, plastic free initiatives, business reduction of plastic use within Jersey and organised beach cleans in order to be crowned a ‘Plastic Free Coastline’ – a title Alderney has already achieved.

Eco activist Sheena Brockie, who organises community beach cleans and has cut down her own plastic use in a personal challenge for the past year, welcomes the challenge. She believes that by working together and having one voice against plastic pollution, the island will achieve better results. Sheena told Express: “Everyone that I’ve come across - they just want to change and find ways to change.”

Video: Sheena Brockie explains how an 'island-voice' requesting companies and businesses to cut down on plastic will be louder.

Area representative of Surfers Against Sewage, Linzi Hawkin, believes Jersey can cut its waste and achieve the certification by the Autumn. She told Express that there are many communities across the UK also trying to cut down on plastic and the SAS community helps each other with advice. Linzi says people in Jersey are in tune with the environment, so much so, that we can become the ones that others can learn from.

Video: Linzi Hawkin believes that islanders can become the best 'case-study' to show other communities how to cut-down on plastic. 

Islanders are being asked to get on board the plastic-reducing challenge by recycling, reusing and requesting greener alternatives to plastic.

Deputy Luce added: “I have no doubt that we are all up for a bit of hard work and in six-months-time we can truly say we worked hard and we’ve achieved that ‘plastic-free’ status.”