READING Borough Council will soon become plastic free following a move to eliminate single-use plastics from all of it's internal and commissioned services.

It follows a motion by councillor Rachel Eden, which was unanimously approved by fellow councillors at a Full Council meeting yesterday (June 25).

READ MORE: Council planning for a zero carbon Reading

Councillor Eden said: "Children across Reading have been asking for action so I'm delighted Reading will now be one of the first councils in the country to go plastic free."

She later added: "It is important to recognise that the council is working holistically on climate change and will of course plastic and in particular single use plastic does have an impact on climate change, is causes separate environmental issues and that is why is it important to bring this separate motion.

"The children of our town are absolutely key to this."

The move will require the council to publish a plan with a timetable to implement the ban.

The motion highlighted that worldwide around 300 million tons of plastic is manufactured each year and half of it is disposable and ends up in our rivers and in the sea, and that oceans are expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025.

Plastics in the environment can release toxic chemical as they decompose which pose a danger to marine life and, through the food chain, ultimately humans.

By agreeing the motion Reading Borough Council has committed to ensuring that – wherever possible – single use plastic is eliminated from use within the Council as soon as possible.

The agreed motion acknowledged that some single-use plastic products remain essential for providing care and support or to enable groups such as older people, people with disabilities and autistic people to live their daily lives.

Councillor Sophia James, Reading Borough Council’s lead member for Neighbourhoods, added: "Last year the council, through its partnership with RE3, introduced recycling plastic trays, pots and tubs, in addition to plastic bottles, in Reading.

"It is so important that where people have to use single plastics we get them back into the system for recycling so that they don’t end up in our rivers and sea.

"The money produced for recycling plastics also goes into protecting public services for residents."