In June, newly elected town mayor Ian Bark declared his intention for Bridport to achieve Plastic Free status by the end of his year in office.

Over the past few months, despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on all our lives, the Plastic Free Bridport group has been busy developing a strategy and starting the delivery process. The plan was to divide the campaign into two phases the first targeting community based organisations followed by the business and commercial sector.

The first community phase has been an outstanding success with the target number of groups required to achieve Plastic Free status for the town under this heading overwhelmingly achieved and more organisations in the process of joining the campaign.

We only needed 15 organisations to sign the pledge and already have 21 confirmed, as well as several local councils, with many more in the pipeline.

Plastic Free Bridport team member Sarah West said: "This amazing response reflects the strength of feeling within the community sector for something to be done to reduce the impact that not only single use plastics but more generally all plastic products have on the environment."

Amongst the community organisations that have signed the pledge are Bridport Town Council, Bothenhampton and Walditch Parish Council, Bradpole Parish Council, Symondsbury Parish Council, Bridport Community Shed, Bridport Community Orchard, Bridport Rotary Club, Bridport Tennis Club, Bridport Young Persons Action Trust, Transition Town Bridport, West Bay Discovery Centre, Burrough Harmony Centre, West Bay Community Forum and West Dorset Friends of the Earth.

The Plastic Free Bridport team is very excited as the campaign is about to enter phase two — the business sector. Over the coming weeks we will be asking local businesses to join our campaign by:

• Responding to our invitation by saying "yes, we want to be involved".
• Auditing their single-use plastics use and choosing three items which they can stop using or replace with non-plastic equivalents.

For Bridport to achieve plastic free status we need a certain number of businesses to sign on, each with their three items replaced. Companies that have already done this can still become Plastic Free Bridport champions.

If phase two is as successful as phase one Bridport will gain Plastic Free status. But, this is really just the start of a campaign, which aims to remove plastic from as many shops, pubs, businesses, charities, churches, and schools as possible and more importantly from every household in the town.

Town mayor Ian Bark firmly believes that: "All the residents of and visitors to Bridport have a part to play if this campaign is to be truly successful."

To support the campaign and provide a regular source of information, Plastic Free Bridport has launched a Facebook page. For the latest news about the campaign and information about the impact of plastic on the environment and how to remove it from your life it is the place to go.

Finally, a scary plastic fact: If we continue to allow plastic waste into our seas and oceans at the current rate there will be more plastic by weight than fish in them by 2050.