Banchory bags Campaign

I heard this morning that the Cleaner, Greener, Banchory bags are on the ocean but not due to land in the UK until May 31 and we are not sure, at this stage, where they will do so.  It will probably take 4-6 days for them to be cleared by the authorities and then they have to get to Go Green, be sorted, and delivered from St. Andrew’s to  Banchory.

It makes our thoughts about commencing to hand them out on our joint promotion day with Waste Aware on June 7 rather unlikely.  However, we can still make good use of that day by stopping and talking with people around town and handing-out our bookmarks and, hopefully, the bags will be in Banchory in time to be given away at St. Ternan’s Fair, which looks as if it will be a very exciting event this year.

Cllr. Karen Clark [a member of BbC] and I had a meeting with Sean, the new manager of Somerfield in Banchory this afternoon. 

He told us that the Banchory store had already cut it’s usage of plastic bags by 20%, but he said that he was aiming to cut it further - hopefully to 60% - and we said we would do anything we could to help him achieve this.

He had recently been at a conference with other managers and said that he had heard of three Somerfield stores which had, or were trying, to become pbf.  He had talked with his Regional Manager, who was in favour of the endeavour, and Sean plans to talk with the Regional Manager for Durham [which is one of the stores attempting to go pbf] this week, and will report back to Karen and myself early next week.

Both Karen and I felt that the meeting had been very useful.

I spoke with the Iain Fergusson from the Co-op today and he tells me that after Banchory Co-op has its re-fit [in June I believe] from then on plastic bags will be kept under the counter - customers with just a couple of items will be expected to carry them in their arms;  customers with more shopping will be asked if they have their own bags;  if not, they will be offered a cotton bag for 99p;  if they refuse that, they can buy a ‘home compostable’ bag for 6p;  if all that fails, they can demand a plastic bag……. but they are hoping that shoppers will have given-in by then.

This should be a great example to the other shops in Banchory.  Well done, Co-op.

Last night, I received a very interesting message from the Co-op:

I am the Commercial Packaging Manager at the Co-operative Group.  Part of my job is looking after carrier bags, and the home-compostable bag that we have on trial in around 40 stores is my baby.  If you send me an e-mail with your phone number, we can have a chat about what we are doing and what we can do to help you.

We haven’t managed to talk yet, but…….. watch this space……..

Yesterday afternoon, Cllr Clark [one of the BbC team] and I had a meeting with three members of the Waste Aware Department of Aberdeenshire Council. 

They have offered to help us promote our campaign on June 7 by bringing the ‘Waste Aware Bus’ over to Banchory and they will spend the day telling anyone who is interested why it is so important that they get into the habit of using their reusable bags whenever they go shopping [as well as informing them about other aspects of waste disposal].

They have a lot of posters and pamphlets on the bus and were telling us how popular it was with the schools when they visit.

I just hope that we will have our ‘Cleaner, Greener, Banchory’ bags by then and can start handing them out on that day.  I am going ahead with plans to do so - getting a roster of volunteers to come along together with information to hand-out to those who need persuading - but it would be nice to know if we will have the bags!

I spent Monday afternoon going around and talking with some of the shopkeepers and thought I would report on the progress they were making……..good news and bad.
 
Sue Ryder - who were totally in favour of the campaign and the local manager running down stocks of plastic bags reports that one of their Managers has just re-ordered thousands of plastic bags for the Banchory shop!  I have had a lot of correspondence with SR so will be following this up.  Local manager doing everything she can to promote their reusable bags which are very varied and attractive.  [Following an email to SR, I have had an apology from them saying that they are fully in support of BbC and that the person who ordered these bags is no longer with them.]
 
Mitchells, a hardware shop, brought-up the suggestion that the Banchory Business Association get together and order bags at the last meeting of the Association, but it will not happen as they were the only ones apart from the committee at the meeting.
 
[I talked with the Chairman of the association on the 'phone and he confirmed that they could not help us, except to send out information to all their members.  He did say that he, personally, was in favour of what we were doing and said that he would source alternatives for the Inchmarlo Golf Shop - which he runs and he will happily put up posters, etc supporting BbC.]
 
Charles Michie Chemists staff tell me that at least 25% of customers bring their own bags.  Good work, but some way yet to go.
 
The Co-op Manager reports that all Co-op stores are going to move to having plastic bags kept where customers will have to ask for them [at some time in the future].  The Banchory store is to be re-fitted in June and we agreed that we could have a ‘mutually beneficial’ campaign - pushing their cotton bags, which would be kept in a prominent position in future, handing out our ‘hints’, and talking with folk.
 
WH Smith are getting their own cotton bags and will, likewise, be keeping plastic bags where customers have to ask for them.  The Manager says her order for plastic bags has reduced by 1/3rd.
 
Bentleys, a dress shop, staff are very keen on the pink Go Green Bag left with them earlier this month but haven’t had any feed-back from the owner.  They will follow this up for me.
 
Hay’s Florists will do a special floral display in June to support the campaign.

Red Cross complained that some of our ’supporters’ had been in and abused their staff.  I apologised profusely and said that I was sure that none of the BbC team would do that.

Cherubs, Baby Shop, ready to order some bags from Go Green.

This morning I heard the good news that our bags have been produced and are sitting in a container awaiting shipment.  The bad news was that there have been two serious typhoons in the area and all shipping has been disrupted.  The problem now, is that everyone is trying to get their various containers onto a limited number of ships.  Fingers still crossed that we will receive them in time for our launch in early June - but no guarantee, which makes it all a bit difficult to make all the necessary arrangements!

I came across two articles in the press this weekend that have made me pause for thought - ‘Sustainable‘ bio-plastic can damage the environment | Environment … in ‘The Guardian’ Weekend Edition, and  FT.com - Plastic: The elephant in the room in the Financial Times magazine.

The Guardian article concentrates on the fact that a recent study the paper did suggests that

The worldwide effort by supermarkets and industry to replace conventional oil-based plastic with eco-friendly “bioplastics” made from plants is causing environmental problems and consumer confusion…..

…..substitutes [to conventional plastic] can increase emissions of greenhouse gases on landfill sites, some need high temperatures to decompose and others cannot be recycled in Britain.

Many of the bioplastics are also contributing to the global food crisis…..

However, the article pointes out that;  ’the [biodegradable] industry says bioplastics make carbon savings of 30-80%.’

The article goes on to say that;  ‘In theory bioplastics are good.  But in practice there are lots of barriers.’

As campaigners, I believe that we have to acknowledge these issues.

The Financial Times talks about various forms of packaging and, in particular, plastic packaging and points out that

…acknowledging the good qualities in plastic packaging……. cannot be allowed to obscure two unavoidable truths:  our current, single-use relationship with plastic packaging cannot last;  and change, both in materials that we use and ways in which we consume, is going to come largely through the market.  So our behaviour matters…….

… - Mr Packaging - put the challenge another way.  “The amount of packaging we have is a reflection of the life we lead.  That’s the fundamental issue.  And if you want to make a change to that, then you can change your life habits and you can try and get other people to change theirs.  But I’m sorry, that ain’t going to happen.

I beg to differ.

The Banchory bags Campaign is not trying to tackle the whole problem of plastics and I certainly do not have an answer to the many questions these articles raise.  However, habits can be changed [drinking and driving/smoking in public places] and, if shoppers took their own reusable bags with them every time they shopped, we would significantly reduce the need for at least single-use plastic carrier bags.

It is worth remembering what the Financial Times points out:

If the rest of the world lived as Europe does, it would need three planets to sustain it.  To consume our rightful share of resources, we must think in terms of radical reductions.

I am sure that there are many people in the Banchory area who wholeheartedly support our campaign and who now always take their reusable bags with them when they go shopping. 

We now need some of these supporters to help us to win-over those shoppers who constantly forget to bring their own bags when they shop, and those who still do not own a reusable bag.

If you feel that you could spare a few hours to help during the second week of June, please add a comment to this blog and I will get back to you asap, or email me on christina.brown40@googlemail.com .

One of the Banchory bags Campaign team was recently in the South West and she especially made a visit to Modbury in order to see at first-hand what effect their campaign had had on the town.  This is what she reported back to the team:-

I thought you might be interested in what I saw in the S.West when we were down there recently.  Mainly it was a big plus especially about Modbury.  Being plastic bag free is really working there.   I was particularly impressed by the Co-op.   As I queued up I could see that they had no single use bags at the check out,  not even the Co-op degradable ones.   If you are stuck, you can buy a bio-degradable corn starch one for 5p or Modbury’s own eco one (£3.99 I think) and that’s it.  As you go into the shop, facing you is a display of bags- their own Co-op cotton ones, two Modbury bags and some turtle bags.  With this, are leaflets produced by the Co-op in support of the campaign .

That is truly wonderful.  All concerned must have worked very hard indeed to make their campaign so successful.

I am going to approach our Co-op to see if I can get them to be more proactive.  I know that the Manager is in favour of the campaign but so far all he has done is to put out stocks of their cotton bags [which have been very popular].  I believe that the store is to be refurbished in June, so perhaps that will provide us with a mutually beneficial  opportunity to address the issue of single-use plastic bags.

I have talked at length with the Promotions Manager at the Co-op Head Office and she tells me they are running trials in various areas at the moment, but it was impossible to include Banchory in those trials. Hopefully, the trials will be successful and Banchory will be able to participate in any future scheme.  She sent me a long email trying to reassure me that the Co-op degradable bags are not harmful, but I am not convinced. 

Personally, I would rather people used reusable bags.