Monthly Archive

Great news that Markies [as it is called up here] is going to start introducing a 5p charge for plastic carrier bags at their food outlets. No wonder, when they give away nearly 500 million bags a year! When will they make the charge store wide? Look at http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/caring/article.htmlin_article_id=431313&in_page_id=511&ct=5&in_page_id=511

I do hope all you have gone online and signed the petition in yesterday’s Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=519829&in_page_id=1770

Let’s not forget, though, that it is up to the customer to make a change. Stores would not need to have plastic bags if customers did not want them.

Yesterday morning I had a delightful morning talking with the children at Crathes Primary School. They were very supportive and asked some interesting questions. I am hoping that they will produce some colourful artwork which can go up in various shops around Banchory and, if the art work on their walls is anything to go by, I needn’t worry. They should certainly be eye-catching.

In the evening I spoke with a group of Home Start volunteers in the Banchory area. They do wonderful work helping families with very young children and, again, were totally supportive of the Banchory bags Campaign.

Good news on the funding front, too. So far we have received sponsorship from the North Banchory Company, Raeburn Christie Clark & Wallace , PGL, The Mortgage + Property Centre, and Keep Scotland Beautiful. Thank you, to all of them. We are still waiting to hear from other potential sponsors and hope to do so very shortly.

Today’s issue of the Daily Mail has a NINE [9] PAGE SPREAD entitled ‘BANISH THE BAG’.

I urge you all to look at it. There are some excellent photographs of the damage plastic bags are doing to animals and to the countryside. There is also a coupon to cut out and send in as a petition to the UK government to register your concern about the environmental impact of the 13 billion plastic bags British retailers give to shoppers every year.And for those of you interested in having a glossy A1 wallchart you will find details of how to obtain this on the bottom of Page 50. I would highly recommend this for parents and schools as it is the younger generation that has to carry on the good work.

Banchory Library are very supportive of our scheme and are putting our bookmarks into every book lent by the library over the next few months. Bookmarks have also been taken to the schools and will be distributed there.

Sue Ryder Care has two different styles of jute bags with the Sue Ryder Care name printed on them, and have found they are selling more of these in recent weeks.

However, in one of the shops I was in today when I very politely queried whether a customer standing next to me really needed a plastic carrier bag , the customer said, in no uncertain terms:

“It’s too ******** late to save the planet.”

Oh, well - Ups and downs!

Ten shops surveyed today and only one definitely not in support of the campaign. The others will need some persuading if they are to be completely won over, although many said that they had been thinking of making changes.

GOOD NEWS, in that ALL of the shops remarked that more and more customers were bringing their own bags with them and refusing plastic bags.

Commenting on the interest generated by the campaign, Councillor Karen Clark says :

“There has been a lot of media attention focused on Banchory in the last week or two and it is really putting the town on the map. “

Three BbC volunteers did an initial survey of six of the local shops this week in order to make sure we were asking the right questions on our survey form.    Along with lots of explaination we are asking

• Have they heard of the campaign
• How many bags do they give away a week
• Would they consider supplying their own reusable bags
• Would they train their staff not to routinely offer plastic carrier bags to customers
• Would they like input from BbC volunteers with training
• Would they display a poster
• Would they object to being mentioned in publicity
• Any further questions/comments

One shop said that ‘NO’ they definitely would not support the scheme.  They have spent a lot of money on having their own plastic bags produced which were good advertising for their shop.  They had enough bags and plastic wrap for 3-4 yrs.

Another shop was completely the reverse, saying that they would never buy another plastic bag.  The other four were supportive, but had reservations - two saying that customers found the paper bags they used were not good in the rain.  All said that they had been looking into alternatives and that they had found the demand for plastic carrier bags had greatly reduced in the last six months.

As well as doing the survey on a one-to-one basis with the Manager/Owner we are leaving each shop with a list of possible suppliers of different types of reusable bags and a sheet giving them an idea of what the campaign is trying to achieve.

Next week we start surveying the rest of the shops and have to be prepared for several follow-up visits over the coming months. 

98% of the 362 Banchory shoppers that were surveyed in various locations around Banchory last week  were in favour of Banchory becoming a Plastic Bag Free town.  Nearly 1 in 3 of those questioned were men.  One in six did not possess a reusable bag, but those who did had roughly 4-5.  Over 100 of those questioned said that they always use their reusable bags.

I have received a few messages welcoming Banchory bags Campaign to the forum. This one from Bridgend and, in answer to their question, ‘Yes, we are on the MCS PBF list’.

“Welcome Christina to the PBF Google Group. It looks like you have a good thing going in Banchory - will you become the first Scottish community on the Marine Conservation Society PBF list? I hope you find the group to be helpful and informative. Enjoy! “

They have started a file of photographs of plastic bag litter around the UK, which they hope will be more relevant than those taken in Hawaii. They certainly are! 

Yesterday we were interviewed by The Green Diary. Pictured are Margaret, Alison and Karen posing for the photographer.

Wow! After just one week of encouraging Banchory residents to change to using reusable bags, look at the response we have got. WELL DONE, BANCHORY SHOPPERS.

We have had bookmarks printed which our local library and the book shop will put into every book; and the local Arts Centre, the traders at the market, and several stores will give out. As well as listing six facts about plastic, the bookmarks are printed with HINTS AND TIPS to try to help people to remember to take their reusable bags with them.

• Say “no thanks” to plastic bags
• Try to always carry a compact reusable bag with you
• Remember to take reusable bags with you on shopping trips
• If you forget - ask for a cardboard box
• When you’ve unpacked, leave them ready for their next job:
  • By the door
  • In your coat pocket
  • With your wallet and keys
• TAKE PRIDE IN A GOOD HABIT

We hope they help. So many people have bags but haven’t yet got into the habit of carrying them with them all the time.

BbC also hope that when you go into the Banchory shops you will TELL THEM you are supporting the campaign and that you DO NOT WANT them to routinely put shopping into plastic bags.

As I mentioned yesterday, our local MPs are supporting us, but it would also be a help if you sent an email to the Scottish Parliament telling them that you want them to take action on plastic bags.

More good news.  We have today received a letter of congratulation and support from our local MPs, Mike Rumbles MSP, and Sir Robert Smith, MP.  Their letter points out that Mike Pringle MSP introduced a Members Bill in the Scottish Parliament calling for a levy to be introduced on plastic bags, and said that that the Liberal Democrats are very supportive of initiatives such as ours.

 I have also had emails from Rebecca Hosking inviting me to join a nation-wide, on-line forum of the leaders of Plastic Bag Free groups which has been running for some time and which has been a means by which advice and support can be shared between different towns.  It is an excellent idea and I am more than happy to join.

You can see the STV coverage of the campaign on their website, here.  You’ll need to click on the news for 12 February and the report starts about 3 minutes in, or you can slide the slidebar to the right to get to the report immediately.

Roz was on the High Street doing surveys yesterday.

I think our support is still extremely high which will be wonderful for when we start surveying the traders over the next two weeks. We have 73 shops in Banchory and many of them are parts of chains, so we may have some hard work ahead of us.

The secretary to Maureen Watt, the Minister for Schools in Scotland [who happens to live in Banchory], contacted me today to lend her support to the scheme which will be wonderful.

I think the Minister must have seen the campaign in the STV news report yesterday. We were featured in the morning, lunch and evening news. The report was well done and managed to cover the main points of why BbC had started the campaign as well as interviewing people on the street. No negative views!

Several UP days. Wonderful! And a bit of a ‘down’!

The article in the Press & Journal was followed by a longer article the next day which focused on the ‘wider’ picture and yesterday we featured on the front page of The Deeside Piper, our local paper.

Today the STV cameras caught up with us and interviewed a few traders [including our local Somerfield] and captured me surveying a few shoppers. They conducted a few interviews with shoppers and were trying hard to find someone who was against the campaign but I don’t think they found anyone. Hurrah!

The down.

I have spent the weekend thinking about the Action Plan scheme to sell the bags to local retailers and have decided that it would quickly become an administrative nightmare. I have spoken with all of the team and they agree. Therefore, we have decided that BbC will give away bags to the residents/shoppers of Banchory; just as all the other towns who have undertaken similar schemes have done.

The bags will have BANCHORY on one side and the names of our sponsors on the other [logos get complicated]. I think our sponsors will be happier with this arrangement.

Photographed are Margaret and Alison, two members of the team, surveying shoppers in the High Street this morning. It looks as if our shoppers definitely support the campaign.

I spoke to a local group called ‘Third Stage‘ this week. They were amazed and shocked at the numbers of plastic carrier bags given out. However, they saw some difficulties with doing without plastic bags and raised some important points.

• many of them live in flats and cannot compost their vegetable peelings, etc.
• they need plastic bags to put their rubbish in, but had limited budgets.

It is hard for people living in flats with no access to gardens with compost bins. However, I believe that there are organisations in Aberdeen, and even in parts of Banchory, who pick-up garden rubbish and compostable materials on a regular basis. I hope that this service will be expanded to cover the whole of Banchory very shortly.

If you buy/get biodegradable bags and sort your rubbish into

1. ‘CLEAN’ rubbish which can either go straight into your wheelie bin or into a seperate bin in your kitchen/bathroom/wherever. You can even use a bag in this seperate bin, but make sure you only empty the contents of the bag into the wheelie.
2. ‘DIRTY’ rubbish which goes into a biodegradable bag and, eventually, into your wheelie bin.

You will be amazed at how little ‘dirty’ rubbish you have, if you do this. [Most of our rubbish seems to be packaging and, of course, we should be complaining about how much of it there is.]

There’s my ‘lecture’ for the day.

In a report of an interview with Rebecca Hoskings [who started the campaign in Modbury], the reporter said:-

“It strikes me that, until meeting Hosking, I have been completely representative of the general public’s attitude to plastic bags, particular those picked up at supermarkets. Sometimes I have so many orange Sainsbury’s bags piling up in the larder that I run out of space to put the food. My local store has introduced recycling bins but I’ve never used them. In fact, in the middle of Hosking’s campaign, Gordon Brown made his first significant green speech in which he announced that he intended to call a meeting of all supermarkets to see how their carriers could be eliminated altogether. ‘Every year in Britain, over 13 billion single-use carrier bags are distributed - over 10 bags a week for every household,’ he said. Ten? That was me on a good week. I feel pretty sure though that, if supermarkets do not supply long-lasting and more sustainable alternatives, busy mothers like me will just carry on.”

We just can’t ‘just carry on’. We have to try to make a difference.

This is a photo of myself and Cllr Karen Clark, who is a member of the BbC, being photographed by the Press & Journal in the middle of the High Street in Banchory. It is great to have the support of Cllr. Clark. She adds experience and knowledge to the campaign.

We are getting lots of coverage in the media - both written and visual. The campaign really does seem to be taking off. I have started surveying Banchory shoppers and of the 29 asked 100% have been in favour. A good start.

I was sent this site by a contact today. China will be banning bags in June. Do we really want to be the last to ban bags?

Instead of repeating information that you can find on any number of websites, I will keep this blog as a diary of what the BbC does each day/week as this might be the greatest help to other campaigners. We have had a few ups and downs so far, but mostly ups.Three of us started thinking about this campaign just before Christmas and, as the other two are particularly busy people, I undertook to lead the initiative. Of course, I had no idea of what I had undertaken!

At the end of January our group had grown to 9 and we had a meeting to map out our ‘Way Forward’. It was decided that we would

• Get the support of Banchory Development Initiative, the Banchory Community Council and the Banchory Business Association………. [All replied that they are in support.]
• Survey 100 Banchory shoppers [next week] to ascertain their attitudes to plastic/reusable bags, and then
• survey the 73 shops in Banchory [end Feb] -hopefully being able to report that the vast majority of shoppers were in favour.
• Hand out BbC Bookmarks which give some facts on plastics on one side and hints for how to remember to use your reusable bags on the other.
• Get the support of local schools [spoken to 2 of the 3 in Banchory]. We are now promoting the campaign with other smaller schools in the area and have had a good response from them. Two talks in their Assemblies lined-up so we will get to involve the whole school.
• Give talks to as many groups as possible. [I am giving a talk to our 'Third Stage' group tomorrow and have 2 other talks lined-up so far.]
• Seek sponsorship from local groups to help fund the initial purchase of 1500 long-handled cotton and 1500 short-handled jute ‘Banchory’ bags. These bags will be sold to the smaller shopkeepers at a small discount with the proviso that they sell them to customers at a maximum price or give them away, as they wish. Monies raised would be used to purchase more bags when necessary. [We have written to 7 local groups so far and are hopeful that some of them will see their way forward to helping us shortly.]
• Send out a Press Release to the local papers [last Monday].

Well, today we have made page 3 of the Press & Journal and will feature in another article in the same paper tomorrow as well as having a report in The Deeside Piper. It is all happening. Definitely an ‘up’ day.

Earlier this year Modbury in Devon banned plastic bags in their village and numerous towns and villages and cities around the UK are following suit.  However, as far as I know, no town in North East Scotland has taken this step and I would like Banchory to be the first to do so.

I have lived in Banchory now for 12 years and think it is a lovely village in a picturesque setting.  However, I sometimes find plastic bags littering the lane I live on, the woods I walk through and the river bank that is the heart of the town.  They can last for hundreds of years and damage the environment even when they are disposed in landfill.   I believe that I am not alone in thinking that it is time to take action and ban plastic bags from our beautiful town.

In June 2007, Modbury, a town in Devon, was the first town in the UK to go plastic bag free and, since then, over 80 towns, including Selkirk and North Berwick, are planning to follow. If the group’s aims succeed, Banchory could be the first ‘town’ in North East Scotland to become plastic bag free. Several countries which have decided to ban or discourage the use of plastic bags include: Australia, Bangladesh, Ireland, Italy, Taiwan, Mumbai, France, West Bengal, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Switzerland, Rwanda, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, California, Somalia, Botswana, Philippines, New Zealand, AND NOW CHINA!

The “Banchory bags Campaign” (BbC) group, recently formed under the umbrella of Banchory & District Initiative Limited (BDI), believe that, although it may be only a small step towards helping our environment, removing plastic bags from the local shopping scene is a step that we can all take. BbC has already enlisted the help of local schools and has obtained the support of the largest local supermarket, Somerfield, and also of the Co-op. BbC will conduct surveys of Banchory shoppers and traders over the next few weeks. If Bbc finds (as expected from informal soundings) that the community is behind the campaign, it is aiming for Banchory to be plastic bag free starting from 16 June 2008 - after St. Ternan’s Fair.

Bookmarks setting out ‘Hints’ to help shoppers to say, ‘No Thanks’ to plastic bags and listing a few facts about plastic will be given out over the coming weeks.

BbC is currently seeking funding for the project from a variety of local and national sources.

It is up to the shoppers in Banchory to make this work. There has been a lot of discussion in the media about how to reduce the use of plastic bags and the litter they make. Some people think the government should be doing more, or that supermarkets should take the initiative. It is easy to forget that plastic bags are only a problem because people insist on using them. Just one cloth bag can replace at least 1000 plastic bags over its lifetime. It would be easy to make a big difference in Banchory.

Plastic carrier bags are the icon of our unsustainable lifestyles and removing plastic bags from our lives will not make us sustainable or stop global warming. However,  hopefully it will make us all stop and think about the bigger picture. We can all actually do without plastic bags. We can take old bags into the supermarket and reuse them or, better still, take our own reusable, environmentally friendly bags with us whenever we go shopping