One of Cardiff’s most iconic venues has committed to removing all single-use, disposable plastics from its operations by the end of next month.
St David’s Hall, theNational Concert Hall and Conference Centre of Wales has pledged to replace plastic beer glasses, straws, drink stirrers and vending cups with sustainable, biodegradable alternatives which will decompose naturally, with no harmful effects on the environment.
Plastic pollution is a huge issue and items we use just once such as plastic bottles, straws, food packaging and cups can take up to 450 years to breakdown, even longer in water.By 2050, it’s predicted that so much plastic will have accumulated in the world’s oceans that it’ll weigh more than all the fish combined, having a detrimental effect on marine life.
Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Cllr Peter Bradbury said:
“The issue of marine plastic pollution is of huge global concern, and it is encouraging to see our staff implementing alternative processes to ensure Cardiff is reducing its plastic footprint.
“Wales is one of the best recycling nations in the world and we were the first country in the UK to introduce single use carrier bag charges. It is therefore essential that as a capital city we lead the way in correct recycling and help to eliminate incorrect waste disposal in our waters.”
Ceri Moxham, Catering Manager at St David’s Hall said: “St David’s Hall cares passionately about the planet and wanted to make a difference. Wealready use a range ofbiodegradable plates and cutlery for our rugby events but we wanted to expand on this. Our first orders of the new products known as PLA (compostable corn starch) have been made and we expect the transition will be complete by the end of May. Our customers will be informed and can be confident that we are doing our bit to reduce plastic waste.”
The Volvo Ocean Race, the world’s toughest and most prestigious sailing even arrives in Cardiff this May and is carrying a strong, clean oceans message on its 45,000 nautical mile voyage across the great oceans. As a host port, Cardiff is looking into producing its own sustainability study in line with other global ports such as Hong Kong and Auckland.
