Anglian Water forms coalition to tackle plastic waste in UK

UK water supply and recycling company Anglian Water has announced plans to form a new coalition to tackle plastic waste in the east of England.

Anglian Water is the biggest water company in the UK in terms of geography, supplying more than 6m customers with 1.2bn litres of water every day. The company will form a coalition to tackle plastic waste along with other businesses, manufacturers and retailers, to complement its other efforts in this area. The company aims to become a UK leader in combating plastic waste in the region by 2030.

Among Anglian Water’s prior efforts to tackle waste from single-use plastics are a scheme to provide free water bottle refill schemes for public use in towns and cities across the UK. It has also funded a wide volunteer network, alongside Keep Britain Tidy, to remove plastics from rivers, beaches and other areas.

What new plastic waste commitments has Anglian Water made?

Recognising the growing challenges of plastic waste, Anglian Water has pledged to fully understand and investigate the problem by working with research partners across different sectors, which will then allow the company to measure progress in meeting the challenge.

In addition, the company will work to eliminate single-use plastics throughout its business, including in its offices and across its entire supply chain, and will also work with other members of its coalition to do the same. By working with customers, the utility provider will also attempt to grow its volunteer network to remove existing waste plastics from the environment.

What impact will the coalition have?

According to the chief executive of Anglian Water, Peter Simpson, the company’s plan to form a coalition will lead others in the region to effectively eliminate single-use plastics, and that it will go beyond the scope of the typical responsibilities of a water company.

He explained: “We want to trial things like working with clothes manufacturers on how we might be able to design better materials that don’t shed plastic fibres, or with white goods companies about developing better filters on washing machines that capture plastic particles from our clothes. The group will even look at finding new ways of reusing discarded plastics or those filtered from the water treatment processes to make them into a valuable commodity once again.”