I’d like to thank Rotary Monmouth and all involved in Sunday’s Raft Race for putting on a delightful event. Thanks also to those, too many to name, who cheered us on and supported St David’s Hospice Care by sponsoring our raft. Plastic Free Monmouth’s craft ‘A Lotta’ Bottles’ floated on a thousand ‘single use’ plastic bottles recovered from local events, litter and recycling collections, and was further buoyed-up by the support of the crowds lining the riverbanks and bridges.

Just a week after launching the first Drinking Water Fountain in Monmouth with Rotary Monmouth’s Community Champions, we welcomed another opportunity to raise awareness of how choosing ‘reusables’ prevents waste - and saves money. We hope to work with the organisers to replace single-use plastic at the finish line of the raft race, where reusable cups would make post-rafting refreshment taste all the better. All of our raft’s bottles will be reused and recycled, of course.

Madeleine Boase (Chair, Plastic Free Monmouth)