Frome is a Plastic Free Community – again!

FROME has excelled once more and has been recognised for completing another year of community driven plastic free action for 2022.

Back in 2017, Frome Town Council started the campaign by pledging to become plastic-free and began phasing out non-recyclable single-use plastic from the town hall. Then with the help from the community in 2019, Frome was awarded Plastic Free Community status by Surfers Against Sewage, joining a movement that includes 900 other plastic-free communities across the country.

To retain the Plastic Free Status each year the town needs to meet several objectives, such as more businesses pledging to remove disposable plastic from their operations, recruiting more community allies to help support the campaign, and organising a number of events that raise awareness of disposable plastics.

The council’s resilience officer Jo Morris said, “We are delighted that we can celebrate this again – last year we had six more businesses joining the campaign by removing single use plastic from their daily activities, 19 new community allies are now helping us spread the word about our plastic free journey, and we had some really fun events and new initiatives such as our Plastic Free. Period. Campaign.”

Cllr Fiona Barrows said, “Being a Plastic Free Community is an ongoing journey and to retain the status in 2023 Frome needs to work even harder. Surfers Against Sewage do not expect communities to be totally plastic free, their aim is to tackle the single-use plastic crisis, so that’s the avoidable stuff that’s everywhere. Items like plastic drinks bottles, disposable coffee cups, sachets, bathroom plastics, excessive food packaging, takeaway containers etc. These are the things that have a huge impact on our environment and which we can make changes to eliminate.”

Jo added, “This is where the people of Frome come in! If you are a business that is championing plastic free operations and you think you deserve a Plastic Free Champion award, we would like to hear from you!

“If you are an individual or a community group that would like to get involved in waste reduction and plastic free themed events and actions, please get in touch and let’s make 2023 an even bigger success and another step in making Frome a more sustainable community.”

If you are interested becoming a Plastic Free Champion business, you can find more information on the Frome Town Council website, www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk/plastic-free-businesses

If you are an individual or a community group interested in getting involved in plastic free themed events or have ideas on how to make 2023 a plastic free success again, contact Jo Morris on,  jmorris@frometowncouncil.gov.uk.