Join the Navy, see the world, save some plastics

Nearly every week there appears news from around the globe about the fight against the spread of polluting plastics and our race to try to stop this flood overwhelming us. There is a tide of public opinion that is swinging heavily towards reducing and reusing plastics where ever possible, be it with single use plastic bottles and the Government’s planned returns policy or news of another larger organisation that is reviewing and updating its policies and procedures on plastic use and disposal. The latest institution to start to reassess its plastic policy is the British Ministry of Defence.

The MOD has started what is known as a ‘scoping exercise’ to see what the impact would be of a ban on the use of plastic cutlery, bottles and packaging in barracks, bases and warships around the world. This change could go even further with some calling for the MOD to renegotiate contracts with suppliers who rely too heavily on plastic and re-awarding the contracts to competitors who use more environmentally friendly solutions.

The current review is focused on secondary level activities and locations and will not affect front line troops forward deployed to operational areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

An MOD spokesman said, “Like all departments we’re working to reduce and, where possible, eliminate single use plastics. We are currently undertaking a review of what plastics the MOD and the Armed Forces se and are working to drive this initiative forward. The review will have no impact on current military operations.”