READING BOROUGH COUNCIL is using nearly 12,000 single-use plastic cups every month, despite promising to eliminate them five years ago.
Now, opposition councillors are calling for action.
Reading Arts venues including The Hexagon and the Concert Hall can’t use traditional glassware for safety reasons and need to use plastic alternatives. While they had been using compostable cups, the council confirmed to Reading Green Party councillor Dave McElroy they had to switch back to single-use plastic cups as the supply had become unreliable and there were fears the compostable cups could contaminate other recycling.
The council says it is committed to exploring options on reducing its single-use plastic usage.
This doesn’t make Cllr McElroy happy.
He said the council promised to eliminate single-use plastics five years ago, but these figures suggest that more than 140,000 cups are being used and binned every year.
The issue was raised at a council meeting last month, with Cllr John Ennis, the lead member for the climate emergency, saying there had been some successes, including in the New Directions adult education venues, the borough’s schools, and The Pantry at the town hall. There were also commitments from GLL in leisure centres to do what it could.
“The Council remains committed to reducing its use of single-use plastics in its venues as part of becoming single-use plastic free,” he said.
“That said, it is worth acknowledging that the need to respond to Covid and the resultant wider increase in single-use for personal protection and hygiene reasons had an impact on the immediate momentum to implement the 2019 pledge. The idea of refilling and reuse has taken a while to recover.”
Cllr McElroy felt the response was ‘evasive’.
“Five years ago the Greens expanded from Park Ward into Redlands and all of a sudden the Labour Council was passionate about single-use plastics,” he said.
“The figures the Council still uses an average 11,800 single-use plastic cups every month at just The Hexagon and Town hall alone. Far from eliminating plastic, those venues by themselves are using what, 140,000 single-use plastic cups every year?
“Concerned residents had told me that the Town Hall was still using plastic cups so I was surprised that the Lead Member failed to include these numbers in his answer.”
He added: “It’s disappointing that instead of showing leadership the Lead Member has chosen more greenwash and spin. It’s so hard to know which Labour pledges we can trust and which we can’t.
“I mean, this one is pretty straightforward. If they can’t even do something as cheap and simple as this, how can we trust them on the big stuff?”
Cllr James Moore, the Liberal Democrat group leader and ward councillor for Tilehurst, said the town had gone a long way in its response to tackling the climate emergency.
“However, even though progress has been made there is a danger that might we get complacent about the impact of the things we do,” he said.
“Councillors are right to question how the council is ‘showing what good looks like’ in their own actions. It’s a real shame that we have heard that single-use plastic cups are still being used at our arts venues – I hope that we can move away from these as soon as practicably possible.
“I applaud efforts made by everyone in Reading to reduce their carbon footprint and make more sustainable choices, and I look forward to that journey continuing.”
Reading Conservatives were contacted for a comment.
