Some people accuse me of being a little sad but, having trained as a mathematician, I actually find some statistics fascinating. Here we live, sixty million of us crammed into a small space and to be honest we create a lot of rubbish. Plastic bottles are the focus of one of my latest pieces of research; do you know that we use five thousand five hundred million plastic bottles every year? That is 5,500,000,000 and, yes, I have checked the number of zeros carefully. In case you are interested that amounts to 275,000 tonnes of plastic!
The use of plastic has outstripped the use of glass and there is one environmental reason why this is a good thing; it costs 40% less in fuel to transport plastic since it is lighter in weight so that means 40% fewer harmful emissions. The trouble is that we have been recycling glass longer than plastic and many of us are not aware of the value of recycling plastic bottles. Here’s another interesting fact, recycling just one plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a sixty-watt light bulb for six hours. This is because it takes eight times more energy to create virgin plastic than it does to recycle it - even when you take into account the costs of collecting. In 2001 only 300 million bottles were actually recycled and, to save you all performing the same calculation, that is a mere 5½ % of the total used in Britain.
To make recycling of any value we need good quality recycling schemes, so the national organisation named RECOUP was set up in 1989 to promote such projects across the country. We must also develop uses for the recycled plastic and some interesting applications have been found. Amongst the products that now utilise recycled plastics are garden products such as watering cans and water butts, pipes, sign posts, duvets and fleeces (25 soft drinks bottles makes one fleece); not to forget recycling boxes and plastic bottles!
You may be wondering why I started worrying about plastic bottles; it all began with a visit to English Nature’s Shapwick Heath in Somerset. This is a National Nature Reserve and is managed by Melvin Yeandle; Mel took me around the site to show me what makes it so special. Now, I know that size isn’t everything but this place is huge and when it comes to a reed bed it is good to have a bit of space to play with. One aim of English Nature’s strategy is to attract bitterns to breed here so they need to provide a wet reed bed providing ideal conditions for the bittern’s prey. In other sections of the reserve they aim to increase the number of breeding waders such as lapwing. To do this Mel is trying to create areas where water levels are lowered during the breeding season. All of this requires control of the water levels across a large area and Mel is understandably reluctant to use water from the nearby South Drain to help, there is a risk that this water might contain chemicals and fertilisers from farmland and its use could lead to environmental disaster. Instead rainwater is the only source of water and a combination of wet areas, culverts and banks make the reserve hydrologically secure.
This reserve was rescued from the peat extractors and is now as close as it is possible to get to a fen landscape in the south west of Britain. In summer the reed beds are alive with the sound of reed, sedge and Cetti’s warblers. Otters hunt for fish but remain unseen for the large part amidst stands of reeds. Water voles live here in good numbers and Mel is keen to do more detailed survey work to find out just how many pairs there might be. Overhead it is sometimes possible to see marsh harriers and, at dusk, barn owls. On the paths lizards, grass snakes, slow worms and adders bask in the sun whereas at the edges of small pools there are common toads, frogs, smooth and palmate newts. Winter is exceptionally good for its huge populations of wildfowl, the list of species is long but it is the sight of flocks of duck or skeins of geese flying across a watery sunset that is more inspirational.
This wet terrain has always been difficult to cross; it was on this very spot that people constructed their earliest, known, raised walkway in Europe. Discovered in 1970 by a peat digger, Ray Sweet, the ‘Sweet Track’ as it is now known has been dated to 3806BC. It is known that this track was still being repaired in 3800BC but it is suspected that six years was the lifespan of this walkway. Such accurate dating is only possible due to dendrochronology, the study of the growth patterns of trees. These early boardwalks have been preserved for the intervening six thousand years because of the anaerobic conditions provided by waterlogged peat and English Nature are now ensuring the preservation of the remaining 500 metres of the Sweet Track by maintaining high enough water levels to keep the timber submerged.
It is appropriate then that one of Mel’s dreams is to provide a new boardwalk to allow people of all abilities to get amongst the reed bed and experience all that is special about it. His type of boardwalk is a little more modern in design, compared with that used by his early predecessors, to allow access by wheelchair and you will probably guess what it is to be made from! This raised pathway will be a major undertaking covering a length of 1000 metres and will use approximately two million plastic milk bottles in its construction! Everything from the planking to the supports and stays will be made from recycled plastic; its non-slip surface and durable composition make it ideal for this changeable environment. Mel is committed to providing a valuable and stimulating experience for people of all abilities, the boardwalk discovery trail will cross habitats which can be found across the whole of the reserve. The touch of the delicate reed heads, the scent of bog myrtle and sound of their stems rustling in the wind set against a backdrop of a watery wilderness bustling with birds and insects should not be the realm of only the able bodied.
English Nature’s plans here are on a grand scale and at the cutting edge of design, but when you know how much effort and cost Mel Yeandle will need to expend to achieve his goal you can’t help but be even more impressed by the achievements of his predecessors. Six thousand years ago they constructed a track which was 1 ¼ miles long using only wood. They felled trees and fashioned planks and supports using only flint tools. Admittedly, their track would not have been able to take wheelchairs and would have been unlikely to pass a modern-day health and safety inspection but it satisfied its purpose. I hope its modern-day equivalent will see more active service even though its total lifespan is unlikely to be as great. I hope that Mel’s vision is realised and that people of all backgrounds and abilities will make use of this gateway into the unusual and fascinating world of the reed bed.
Contact RECOUP to get the facts about recycling plastic on 01733 390021 or visit their website at www.recoup.org
Contact Mel Yeandle at Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve on 01458 860120 or see English Nature’s website at www.english-nature.org.uk
Return to 'Writing Menu' or Main Menu.