ALL eyes were on Bude recently, as some of the most influential plastic-fighting warriors gathered together at Rosie’s Kitchen at Crooklets to launch a new and exciting initiative in an aim to make Bude more sustainable.

A wonderful, buzzing atmosphere filled Rosie’s on Friday, February 9 as excited people from the local community gathered with friends and influential people from the area. Many chatted amongst themselves before the organisers of a new initiative took to the stand to introduce new projects in the pipeline for Bude.

A Greener Bude is the new scheme created by a handful of the town’s most influential plastic warriors and environmental organisations — including ReFILL Bude, #2minutebeachclean, Bude Cleaner Seas Project, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, The Happy Turtle Company, BeachCare, Your Shore Beach Rangers, Morsbags’ Bude Baggers, Widemouth Task Force, West Country Rivers Trust and the Plastic Movement — the majority of which were born in Bude. It is a scheme aiming to bring ideas together and make Bude a more sustainable town, fighting marine plastics, pollution and climate change along the way.

With tables pushed aside for people to socialise by the bar, the room at the back of the establishment showcased just some of the great ways in which Bude is helping the fight against plastic pollution that poisons the world’s oceans and beaches.

The Post met three ladies from the local branch of Morsbags — also known as the ‘Bude Baggers’ — Jo Sheppard, Lynda Bolding and Mary Hallett, who were very excited about being at the launch of A Greener Bude. The ladies explained a little more about who they were and how Morsbags came about.

“Morsbags started over ten years ago, by a lady called Clare Morsman,” they said. “Prince Charles has donated curtains to the cause, so even royalty have given us materials to make bags.”

Lynda said: “It’s been going for about four years in Bude, and has grown steadily. Clare was living in London, and she was fed up with seeing plastic bags everywhere, so decided to do something about it.”

Items such as unwanted duvet covers, pillow slips and curtains can be donated to the cause for ‘baggers’ to create beautiful, individual bags that are given out for free to encourage people to ditch plastic bags and take their own reusable bag along to the shops. Bags of all sizes can be created, and 135,968,560 Morsbags have been made around the world.

Speaking about being part of A Greener Bude, Lynda, Jo and Mary said it was ‘excellent’ to be involved in a developing and exciting cause, adding: “It gets the message and purpose of Morsbags out to people!”

Jo, who works at Morrisons, Bude, added: “I hate giving out plastic bags for people to use for their shopping — that’s why I originally got involved.”

With a colourful and vibrant variety of bags on offer, other stands also showed off their latest products and the difference they are making to the planet. Deb Rosser’s ReFILL scheme, which started in Bude and has now gone national, was showcased with a variety of water bottles and colourful coffee cups. Meanwhile, one of Bude’s latest initiatives within the Happy Turtle Company had a range of sustainable straws and items on offer, in an aim to reach out to hospitality businesses and restaurants in the town to switch plastic straws and cutlery for paper versions. Martin Dorey from the internationally renowned #2minutebeachclean was also in attendance to tell people more about his scheme and tempt them with some of the featured merchandise.

Conservative MP for North Cornwall, Scott Mann, who had launched the Bude Cleaner Seas Project’s wall at Rosie’s earlier in the evening, was excited to see what the people of Bude had been doing.

He told the Post: “I’m absolutely delighted to be here this evening. Bude has been in the national news twice recently — firstly with the tweet from our Prime Minister commending the work of Bude Cleaner Seas, and then the ingenious people of Bude sending Michael Gove a reusable coffee cup.

“The environment is, quite rightly, a very important issue for people. We have come a small distance so far, but if we all do our bit, we can go a lot further.”

Deb Rosser, chair of A Greener Bude, told the Post excitedly that she was ‘delighted’ with the result of the evening. “I’m just delighted that everyone has come along tonight, because this really shows how important the community is to Bude.”

People then quietened their chatter to listen to Bude Cleaner Seas’ Avril Sainsbury introduce the audience to the launch of A Greener Bude, and to explain a little more about what had been going on in Bude over the last few years. She said: “It’s really exciting to see so many people here — it’s really good to see so many in the room, showing their support. The community’s environment is clearly very important to the people of Bude.

“This all began with Widemouth Task Force, which Ado Shorland started in 2011. He was going along his local beaches, picking up driftwood and when he realised how much plastic was on the beaches, he realised he shouldn’t be picking up driftwood — it should be the plastic. Then came Ian with the Bude Cleaner Seas Project, which wanted to look at plastics and the quality of the water in our seas.

“We then had the Wave Conference in 2016, which welcomed scientists, representatives from organisations such as Surf Dome, and others such as Martin from the #2minutebeachclean to talk about the effect plastics are having on our oceans and beaches.”

Deb continued: “We’ve been absolutely bowled over by the support, and Bude is a fantastic community. I attended the Bude Wave Conference, which was incredibly moving and the best day of my life,” she paused. “Sorry Steven, apart from the wedding, and the children!”

She said: “After the Wave Conference, I think people realised that we needed to do something about it (marine plastics). It’s taken a long while to get to tonight, but this launch is happening at a really exciting time — we’ve got some major agenda items in the pipeline.”

People in attendance then learnt a little more about Deb’s development of ReFILL. She said: “It all started when Neil Hembrow from BeachCare and I were sat on the beach here at Crooklets, and we said, ‘you know what, I’m really fed up picking up single use plastic bottles — what can we do about it?’ We then thought, let’s create our own reusable bottle and sell it so people don’t have to buy single-use plastic bottles anymore.

“Rosie’s was the trial place for ReFILL — and it has snowballed big time. I’m really proud of ReFILL, I’m proud it has come from Bude and I’m proud that the proceeds go to Bude Sea Pool, as I’m also on the committee of the sea pool.

“We’ve got to keep Bude beautiful, and, as a teacher, I do believe we’ve got to educate the young people, which we’re already doing in Bude. A Greener Bude is all about educating young people, because they’re going to be the guardians of our environment.”

Lynda from Morsbags’ Bude Baggers was then welcomed up, donning her A Greener Bude t-shirt, to name all the organisations involved in the initiative. Martin Dorey, who admitted that he didn’t get the memo on the t-shirt and instead wore a #2minutebeachclean shirt, also took to the front of Rosie’s to address the audience. Since Martin started tweeting using the hashtag #2minutebeachclean, he has been invited to many countries across the world to educate people of the importance of looking after local beaches and protecting the marine environment.

“People are looking to us,” he said. “People can see that things are happening in Bude — we are a shining beacon of change. There are now thousands of images of two-minute beach cleans from across the world.

“Blue Planet (BBC) recently listed #2minutebeachclean as the top thing that people can do to make a difference — that’s amazing, and it all started in this place, where good things can happen. Sadiq Khan (mayor of London) has now said that he wants to see ReFILL stations all over London. People are looking to us.

“We have seen the Prime Minister tweet about the wonderful work Bude Cleaner Seas Project is doing. The Plastic Movement’s ‘Dawn ‘til Dusk’ beach clean collected so much plastic. They worked with a company called Terracycle, who collected their plastic, and were working to create new reusable bottle tops for Head & Shoulders — the first of these came from Bude.”

Martin added: “This is all important, because green issues are good for business. Sustainability is good for business. Everything you do matters, and every bit one of us does for A Greener Bude, it does matter.”

Next to be spoken about was the desire to set up an office for A Greener Bude, which Deb explained in more detail. “We’re very lucky to have Tom at Rosie’s. Every time me and Claire (Giner, joint-owner of Rosie’s Kitchen) want something, we’ll go to Tom and ask for it and he’ll just say yes straight away. We will hopefully be able to have A Greener Bude office, where we want to educate children and visitors to Bude, sell merchandise and get people to look at what’s happening in Bude and come and find out more.”

A Greener Bude is also looking to create a new lamp, which — believe it or not — would run off dog poo! Enquiries are currently being made to see how the town could acquire this.

Keith Bolding, treasurer of A Greener Bude, spoke on creating a bicycle composter, saying: “Composting is an important issue, and we’re looking at ways in which we can get a bicycle that would break down compost. It would need to be a hot compost bin so that the bacteria can work, but Kerbside compostable collections are a great idea.”

Next up was Deb to talk about a reverse vending machine through the use of a deposit return scheme. She said that with a proposed levy on plastic bottles and takeaway cups, people would be able to drink from their chosen drink, take it back to the deposit return scheme (the vending machine) and essentially get their money back. People would then receive tokens to use at local businesses if they are signed up to the scheme, where they will be able to get money off items.

Deb said: “I still think a reverse vending machine would work really well here as Bude has a lot of independent shops. It’s going to cost, and we’ll probably have to crowdfund for it.”

Claire Giner, co-owner of Rosie’s Kitchen and founder of The Happy Turtle Company, was keen to tell everyone a bit more about a new community recycling initiative with Coastal Recycling. The first of many projects through A Greener Bude, the scheme is up and running, with two big deposit bins located in the car park of Rosie’s Kitchen available for people to drop all of their recycling — including the dreaded black plastics that are currently unable to be recycled by authorities. Claire said: “So anything clean, good and recyclable can be dropped off here and taken away by Coastal Recycling. There will also be a general waste bin, which can be used for all of our beach clean activities. This is a massive turn around in Bude — you can now recycle at Rosie’s.”

Deb also went into detail about exciting conversations with Bude-Stratton Town Council, who could see a major decrease in single use plastics in their offices. The council’s heritage committee recently met and agreed to take on board the principles of ReFILL and The Happy Turtle Company. This will be presented at full council in March, but could see the ban of single use plastics in the council’s offices and at the Castle Bude and castle grounds. Deb added: “I’m delighted that ReFILL and The Happy Turtle Company have been taken on board in Bude-Stratton Town Council.”

The public also heard that a marine group will be started in Bude as part of Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Your Shore network, exciting things are in store for The Happy Turtle Company, and The Plastic Movement will be introducing a medal rating scheme for businesses to display in their windows as part of Bude’s sustainability programme.

Avril went into detail about a new sustainability garden at Budehaven School. She said: “The Budehaven students have been taking part in beach cleans, and because of the great work done in the art department, they are now looking at a sustainability garden. The garden is a bit of a wasteland at the moment, to be frank, but we see a future for it as an outdoor learning space to be used for water projects, and a space for students to sit and be quiet. Richard Smith is designing the garden, which will filter through all the subjects in the school.”

She then introduced Year 7 student, Jack Shorland, who had been taking to YouTube to spread the message of the dangers of marine plastic. He said: “I want to teach kids the dangers of marine plastics, so they don’t make the same mistake in the future.”

Treasurer, Keith, told everyone that A Greener Bude now has a bank account, and is looking for donations, grants and to achieve charitable status at some point in the near future.

Claire added: “There’s so many more ideas, but if you want to get involved or have an idea for a project, please get in touch with us.”

Find out more about A Greener Bude by visiting its Facebook page.