Plastic Free Newton Abbot covers the town of Newton Abbot and surrounding villages, and Kingsteignton. We launched in early June 2019.

We have been working towards Plastic Free accreditation as part of the Surfers Against Sewage international scheme for communities to be actively reducing their plastics use.  We are thrilled to have been awarded Plastic Free Community status in May 2021, having beavered away through the pandemic.  You can read more about our journey here.

We have established good links with several primary schools which have registered with the Surfers Against Sewage campaign for schools. We have delivered assemblies with local children’s author Ellie Jackson about sea pollution.

We’ve also developed strong links with South Devon University Technical College in Newton Abbot which is the plastics hub for the campaign. We worked on a number of joint initiatives with the college’s ‘eco team’, including two film events and plastics stalls at college open days.

We’ve organised several litter picks in town centre and Town Quay area – we even had a kayaker join us who gathered rubbish from the water. These events have been really popular. In Feb 2020 we held a ‘mass unwrap’ at a local supermarket, in partnership with Action for Climate in Teignbridge.

We work with the town development manager. We’ve given talks to local community organisations, including the Rotary Club and Newton Abbot CIC, and are keen to widen this work. If your organisation or group wants to reduce its use of plastics and would welcome support, get in touch.

We’ve been working with local businesses, supporting them to achieve plastic champion status from Surfers Against Sewage. This includes the award winning Westaways Sausages, who have recently won an award for their non-plastic packaging innovations.

Achieving the award is no reason to rest on our laurels.  We have much more to do, and would love you to join us.