Lady Louise and Sophie Wessex open up on future Covid fears as royals go litter picking
LADY Louise spoke out about her post-Covid fears for the environment as the Earl and Countess of Wessex took their children out litter picking today. The royals urged others to follow suit after an upsurge in plastic pollution during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sophie Wessex and Prince Edward attend Southsea beach clean
She added: “We aren’t being told what to do with them. Obviously we would want to encourage people to use these lovely reusable masks, but sometimes you can’t. It’s so difficult because councils are stretched at the moment.
“But if they were to make recycling units available for people to use. Medical facilities and the medical profession obviously know what to do with it, they will have recycling facilities.
"I don’t know whether they incinerate, I’m not sure....but we just don’t know what to do with them. In an ideal world we would all just use these lovely reusable ones.”
Louise, who joshed with her brother and spoke animatedly about starting A-Levels in English, history, politics, and drama, worried that much of the progress made in persuading people to use reusable plastic cups had been lost.
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“Everything has got worse this year because everyone has gone back to non-reusable, non-recyclable plastic cups,” she said.
Sophie said: "It’s so great that campaigns like Keep Britain Tidy are going. It’s so important that we all get our to keep our communities clean.
“The trouble is that Covid has exacerbated the problem. But hopefully now that people, are actually seeing it, that maybe it will make people more aware that we have all got to play our part and do something.
"We are lucky enough to live next door to a lovely forest, and I come back with handfuls of litter every time we go for a walk.”
Louise agreed. Asked if she and her brother were made to come back with handfuls of litter, Louise said: “We want to...”
Louise said: “I want to pick it up but then we don’t have bin bags. And then we don’t have gloves and you are not sure whether to touch it.”
Edward, 56, and Sophie decided to take the children on the beach clean to help encourage them to volunteer.
She explained that there was a lot of wildlife in the Solent and around the beach, including seabirds, seals, dolphins further down the coast, molluscs, and crustaceans.