Thatcham Town Council Charter

Thatcham Town Council has committed to work in partnership with Eco Friends (West Berkshire) to obtain Plastic Free Community Approved status by Surfers Against Sewage, in recognition of our work to reduce the impact of single-use plastic on the environment.

As a community we can bring people together on a journey to tackle throwaway plastic. It’s not about removing all plastic from our lives. It’s about kicking our addiction to throwaway single-use plastic and changing the system that produces it.

This means we ask everyone who lives in and visits our town to do their bit to help reduce disposable plastics. Thatcham Town Council has a significant role to play in that, through the services we provide – and this charter sets out our expectations. As a delivery partner or service user, we ask you to reduce your single use plastic (including biodegradable, compostable and recycled options), focusing on the ten main ‘offenders’ and not using, providing or selling any of the following:

• Plastic carrier bags
• Disposable coffee cups and lids
• Single-use plastic cups
• Plastic food or product packaging
• Balloons & balloon sticks
• Plastic straws (banned by law)
• Plastic cutlery (banned by law)
• Sachets
• Bathroom plastics
• Plastic drinking bottles

We will work towards eliminating other single-use plastic wherever possible, for example; novelty plastic toys, unnecessary plastic packaging, laminated documents and single-use marketing products etc.