By the time you read this, we will have witnessed a momentous week in the history of our existence on earth, writes Dave Hutton of Dawlish Against Plastic

Will governments decide to cool the planet or just add more hot air? Whichever way it goes, the implications for all our futures are at stake. And in the build up to COP26, everything to do with the environment has risen to the top of the agenda, for a week or so at least.

Recently, all Londoners were deemed to be breathing air that was polluted beyond WHO recommendations. Air pollution contributes to more deaths than Covid-19, as high as 10 million a year globally, according to a joint study by Harvard, Birmingham and Leicester Universities. Even here in Devon, poor air quality is killing people, according to Public Health England. Air quality is largely governed by human activity, but will we change our behaviour to reduce it? How many people do you still see sitting in cars with the engine running? The law, although rarely enforced, states that is an offence to idle your engine unnecessarily when stationary, but only if you fail to turn your engine off after being spoken to can you be issued with a small fine of £20. Despite a recent review of The Highway Code, there appear to be no plans to increase the deterrent for what is really a crime against the environment and our collective health.

For far too long in the UK, we have accepted a situation where water companies can discharge untreated sewerage into our rivers at times of heavy rainfall. Over 42,000 ‘storm overflows’, lasting over 375,000 hours occurred in the South West in 2020 according to Defra’s own figures. They occur at the popular swimming beach at Coryton Cove, Dawlish, and at Smugglers Lane. Very recently, MPs voted to against an amendment to the Environment Bill which would have forced water companies to act. The Government has now promised to pass a law to make water companies “secure a progressive reduction” in storm overflows. How long will this take and how much more are we all prepared to pay for our water?

The environmental impact of our way of life has never been fully taken into account by the organisations that provide goods and services. The ‘polluter pay’ principle means that the costs of pollution control and remediation should be borne by those who cause pollution rather than the community at large. The full cost of goods and service should be based on a life-cycle assessment of the damage done to the environment from sourcing raw materials, to production, distribution and end of life/disposal.

For example, plastic production has increased explosively in the last few years, from 300m tonnes in 2010 to 450m tonnes 10 years later – a 50% increase. It is set to continue to rise. One single company produces 167,000 plastic bottles every minute. It is claimed that about 40% of all plastic products are thrown away within one month. Part of the reason why plastic is such a cheap and ubiquitous product that has polluted our rivers and seas is because no one is picking up the real costs for its safe disposal.

Recently, primary school children in Dawlish were invited to create their messages about how to save our planet and came up with lots of simple ideas like avoiding tumble dryers, not leaving electrical goods on ‘standby’, avoiding use of cars for short journeys, passing clothes on rather than throwing them away, shopping locally etc.

These may seem like small changes but if enough adults adopt them, it will show that wastefulness and over-consumption need not be a way of life.