Hi readers, it’s Emily and William talking plastic again. Go online to read our first article about it!

We’ve been thinking about how much plastic we use in our lives, if it’s necessary and how to use less. We’re worried as there seems to be more and more products made or wrapped in plastic, and we wonder if they need to be?

For example, can some vegetables and fruits (grapes, apples, bananas, carrots etc) be sold loose? We’d pick what we want and put in paper bags. Salad leaves are trickier, but why not bring in our own container, zero it on the scales, then add the leaves. If you forget it, they will sell you a recyclable cardboard one.

Wrapping products like bacon or meat, so they stay fresh, is harder. We found partly recycled wrapping online, but want to see totally plastic free, biodegradable wrapping. If there was, we could even compost it with any leftovers.

What about things like toys, can they be wrapped in tins or cardboard? Perhaps some things like hospital equipment still must be wrapped in sterile plastic?

We’d love more people to use less plastic, as the less demand there is, the less will be produced. Each time we go shopping in a supermarket, why don’t we all hand back unnecessary plastic wrapping? If loads of us did, the supermarket bosses may eventually see no one actually wants plastic, and start using better alternatives.

We want to do more too, like getting people to switch their engines off if they are not driving, as it’s twice as polluting to have cars idling. Or get people to have like me (Emily), in my magic handbag, a stainless steel straw. If I want a straw I use this!

And yes, we’ll keep you updated as to what we do.

The writers of the Our View column are supported in their editing by The Friendship Club– a project for adults with learning disabilities, run by People First Dorset