Dear Sir,
The Great Aycliffe Tidy Team, as we are now known, go out around the town picking up litter and sometimes cutting back over grown branches along land in the ownership of Great Aycliffe Town Council, under the support of council officers and Councillor Ian Gray. We do this each week because we want a green and clean town. It is demoralising to find the people are not making any contribution and fly tipping continues with the worst area being the rear of Eskdale Place where we found a bed dumped on the green edge in Burnhill Way. Although there are other areas around the town, which some people say are equally as bad.
Amongst all this waste, going in the Burn, is destructive plastic. Plastic was and is a magical invention it is a material based on oil and has thousands of excellent and lifesaving uses. In the medical world, in construction, in tool-making, the manufacturing of phones and other gadgets, cars, household items, furniture, almost everything has plastic in it.
Our modern world depends on plastic to sustain its present lifestyle. But that lifestyle built on the plastic revolution has its dangerous dark side. Everything we use and discard can have dire consequences for the environment. Rubbish is everywhere and it is damaging our health. Plastic pollution is destroying many creatures and poisoning our air, rivers and seas, yet many people don’t seem to care. It is dangerous to health because it is a destructive chemical-based pollutant. It is the one time use of disposable plastic that is so damaging to our health and environment, also our lives. The fish we eat have plastic in them because the vast oceans are filling up with discarded plastic. Newton Aycliffe is not immune from this as any of the team will tell you of what we found including discarded face masks, dog bags, tyres, empty polystyrene trays, and much more. If people Googled ‘Plastic Pollution’ you will get sight of the damage caused by plastic that will make you cry or get angry. My message is, dispose of your rubbish in a responsible manner, educate your neighbours and children, it could be used as a topic for the Councillors Newsletter. In order that we keep our town clean and tidy and a great place to live we must be all concerned about the environment, get you local councillor involved in the project, as not many are.
Vince Crosby