Nine-year-old Alfie is challenging the community to go a week using as little single-use plastic as possible.

The youngster, who is apart of his school’s Eco Warriors club, is asking the town to follow his example and become a plastic warrior.

The Herald will be supporting Alfie and is asking anyone who thinks they can rival this inspirational nine-year-old to send selfies in showing off their eco-spirit.

Denise Bickley, of Sidmouth Plastic Warriors, has commended Alfie on his efforts and offered advice to those wanting to take part.

She said: “Alfie is a key member of our Eco Warriors and he and his family are inspiring.

“First bit of advice: please don’t cheat. Be honest about your plastic purchases, and don’t just stick stuff in the general bin to avoid having it in the recycling.

“The best way to minimise your recycling is firstly to refuse to buy anything unnecessarily packaged in plastic. We don’t need plastic boxes for cakes and pastries – go to your local bakers – or for relatively frivolous items such as baby sweetcorn. Let’s just stop buying these over-packaged products. If you can’t do without a product, think of a way to get it but not in plastic – for example get your milk from the dairy shop or the milkman.

“Need washing liquid or fabric softener? Ganesha do refills of Ecover so just take your old bottle along (I’ve been using the same ones for nearly 2 years).

“If you’re buying yoghurt, why not buy a big tub and decant it instead of buying multi-packed little tubs? Think creatively.

“Think of ways to re-use any plastic – for example grape tubs make great seed trays at this time of the year, and can be reused year after year. I’m up for the challenge and will be sending in a photo of our recycling bin to join in the competition.

“What I love about this is that it stresses that recycling is not the answer. The best recycling bin is an empty one because hopefully it means the owner has refused, reduced and re-used all their plastic.”

Plastic Warriors will be out on Saturday, April 6 to clean up Woolbrook. You can start at Sidmouth Youth Centre at 10am to collect litter picking equipment, or from your house and meet at the centre at 12pm to drop off your rubbish and have a cup of tea. Workers at Lidl will be joining in.

Send your eco-selfies over to sidmouth.editorial@archant.co.uk