King Charles III is right – it’s time to turn off the plastic tap at home

Before coming to the throne King Charles III rightly said the world must move “from a model that encourages a buy, use, throw-away mentality, to one that facilitates reuse, recovery and regeneration”. We agree.

The outgoing Johnson government began gathering evidence on the impact of 855 billion plastic sachets thrown away around the world each year, with a view to a comprehensive UK ban. Such a move is supported by eight in 10 Britons. But progress has faltered, wasting precious time.

Solutions are at hand: this month A Plastic Planet has produced The Reduce, Refill and Replace Revolution, a ready-made strategy for ministers to take forward the ban on sachets, and then move on to a wide range of other plastics and refillables.

Polling evidence recently found 71 per cent of the public is concerned that plastic bottles, tubs, and trays do not get recycled into new plastics. As the King indicates, these items need to be replaced with alternative, recyclable materials.

Strong action of this kind to turn off the plastic tap at home will have an impact beyond our borders. It would compel the European Union into quick and comprehensive action and give our country credibility to lead talks on a global plastics treaty.

We urge the new Cabinet to seize that opportunity.

Whatever happened to accountability? It was Truss who sold her vision of tax cuts to the gullible Tory Party members. It was Truss who promised growth on the back of them. It was Truss who led her government into the Kamikaze mini-Budget. Her friend (I wonder if he still is?) Kwarteng may have agreed with her and carried out the dirty work, but the accountable driving force was Truss.

She is as dishonourable as her immediate predecessor.  However can she stay when her policies have been trashed, as the opponent she defeated in the leadership predicted?  How can she have the brass neck to stay on and now espouse Rishi Sunak’s policies?

Truss must resign.

Tim Sidaway

Hertfordshire

Greater love hath no prime minister than this, that she lay down her chancellor for her life.

Philip Goldenberg

Woking

Anyone checked their pension pot recently?

My pension pot, pie, whatever you want to call it continues to shrink, shrink, shrink.  For anyone nearing retirement this is yet another blow in the midst of the energy and cost of living crises, from a Tory party in complete and utter disarray!

Paul Morrison

Glasgow

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So Kwasi Kwarteng has been sacked for carrying out Liz Truss’s policies.

In this situation, it should be the organ grinder (Truss) who is sacked. Conservative MPs have the power to do this. If they do not, economic incompetence will become entrenched in the public’s mind when thinking of the Conservative Party.

Chris Norris

Calne