The Trust has removed all blue single-use plastic overshoes from its swimming pools, saving more than 36,000 pairs per month
Charitable trust, Mytime Active, has removed all single-use plastic overshoes from its swimming pools and leisure centres, as part of ongoing sustainability efforts. Across the trust’s six swimming pools in the Borough of Bromley, the decision to no longer use single-use plastic overshoes will prevent 36,000 pairs from going into landfill per month - that’s a staggering 432,000 a year. The trust, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is asking its community to instead bring their own flip flops or other suitable footwear to use around its swimming pools.
“This is an important step in helping make Mytime Active plastic free, part of our responsibility to reduce our environmental impact within the local community,” explains CEO Jason Stanton. “There is growing awareness of the issue of plastic and other waste, and we are taking really positive steps towards lessening our impact on the environment. We have clear sustainability goals and work hard to communicate these to everyone in the company and beyond, helping employees and members to understand how they can contribute to our environmental and sustainability targets.
“We have created a team of energy champions who are passionate about environmental and sustainability issues to help lead our initiatives. This team serve as ambassadors for the company's environmental and sustainability efforts.”
Part of Mytime Active’s Carbon Net Zero targets, the move comes under the charitable trust’s wider environmental commitment, which includes a plan to shift the organisation’s focus towards environmental and sustainability enterprises. Other initiatives underway include replacing all existing lighting with energy-saving LED fittings
and installing energy efficient speed controllers to pumps and ventilation equipment, to reduce energy consumption. Mytime Active is also taking steps to improve biodiversity and promote ecological sustainability across its golf courses. These include incorporating native plants into the course's landscapes to provide habitats for local wildlife, and minimising the use of herbicides and fertilisers. Designated areas of Mytime Active’s golf courses are protected as wildlife habitats to provide shelter, food and breeding grounds for a variety of species, and the trust has added nesting boxes and insect houses.
Mytime Active is working with a full range of partners, including Community Leisure UK and England Golf to achieve its environmental and sustainability targets, and identify opportunities to collaborate and share best practice.
