Plastic-free Stamford campaign: 50-year-old plastic bottle for Sqezy washing up liquid found in near-perfect condition

A 50-year-old plastic bottle dug up in Stamford has added weight to a campaign to make the town plastic-free.

Neil McIvor found the bottle close to the Danish Invader pub in Stamford while carrying out building work on a nearby property.

Neil, who is also a dedicated volunteer for Pride of Stamford Litter Pickers, said the bottle was in near-perfect condition despite its age, which should make people think twice about buying and using goods that come in single-use plastic containers or wrappers.

“The bottle hasn’t degraded one tiny bit," he said. "It’s not at all misshapen, which is frightening.

"We find discarded plastic all the time, and it's there forever."

The washing up liquid brand 'Sqezy' - which inspired the slogan ‘Easy peasy lemon Sqezy’ - was launched by Unilever in 1959.

The brand was sold to Scottish-based firm Buck Chemicals about 20 years ago.

Neil said the oldest litter was often found deep in hedgerows, and drinks cans from the 1980s were among items he had cleared in recent months.

He gets up before dawn each day to walk his dog, and uses this time to litter-pick before work.

"The fact that littering and flytipping go on shows too many people have no respect for the community," he said.

Aled Pattinson is leading a campaign to make the town plastic-free.

The Stamford Mercury media sales consultant is asking businesses, such as pubs and cafés, to stop giving out single-use plastics such as straws, stirrers and plastic cutlery.

He said: “The bottle Neil found is a perfect example of the lasting effect single-use plastic has on our environment.

"If we continue with our lazy, irresponsible habits for another 50 years then it will be a really desperate situation for our town and countryside.”

Aled aims to make Stamford one of the first ‘plastic-free’ communities in the East Midlands with the backing of the Plastic-Free Communities Project, which sets out objectives for a community to be ‘plastic free’.

It is the brainchild of Surfers Against Sewage, and lays out objectives for a community to call itself 'plastic free'.

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