Monthly Archive

Today, I have been trying to get the last of the promised sponsorship money into our ‘umbrella company’s’ bank account as we will shortly have to pay a deposit on the bags we have ordered.   These things all take time.   [I am still waiting to see the photograph of the 'mock-up' bag for final approval and was hoping that that would come through today but it looks like I will have to wait until tomorrow now.]

I nearly had heart-failure last night when the bag company sent me an invoice that was for very nearly twice the amount I was expecting!  I had a few very nasty moments wondering how I could have made such an awful error [and imagined having to rob my own bank account of several thousand pounds], before I calmed down and worked out that the mistake was from the bag company’s end, not mine.  Whew!  I still managed to have a pretty sleepless night until I received an amended invoice, with lots of apologies, this morning!

Since the beginning of March [it seems forever!], I have been struggling to get all the sponsors logos [10, in all, plus the logo for Banchory Development Initiative, our umbrella company] incorporated into the design of the bag………………and this was with the help of a Graphic Designer who happens to be a member of the environmental team of one of the sponsors.

I have just done a quick count and it looks as if over 150 emails have been exchanged with the various parties concerned. I don’t know if other groups have had similar experiences.

Unfortunately, some of the wording on the logos provided could not be screen-printed [which is the process used by Go Green Bags] and we have just had to do the best we could, given these circumstances.

Here is a sneak-preview of what the bags will look like. [I should have photos of a 'mock-up' bag very shortly and we will get a better idea then.]

The first photo is of the base and the design will be split in two, with one half showing on either side of the folded bag. [You will get a better idea when I put-up the photos of the 'mock-up' bag.] The other photos show the two sides of the bags.

I think they will certainly get noticed when shoppers start carrying them full of shopping on the streets of the town.

On Easter Sunday, I was invited to participate in an ‘Environmental Awareness’ display that the Birse & Feughside Parish Church was hosting after their Easter Service. 

It is a delightful little church, set deep in the Aberdeenshire countryside, and it was a surprise to find that between 80-100 parishoners were at the Service.  Several other organisations had set out displays and the parishoners showed a very keen interest in environmental issues. 

The Waste Aware Department of Aberdeenshire Council were giving away cloth bags and these were snapped-up within minutes.  I literally had to hang onto my own personal collection of bags which I had taken to liven-up the display! 

The parishoners particularly seemed to like the Go Green bags I had brought back from Australia some years ago [and have used ever since], so I am hopeful that the Go Green representative will get a good response when we visit early in April the seventeen traders in Banchory who indicated in our survey that they would be interested in stocking alternative bags.

Banchory bags Campaign has ordered their ‘CLEANER GREENER BANCHORY’ bags from Go Green, but more of that in another post.

On Tuesday, I sent a message to Mike Pringle [who introduced a bill into the Scottish Parliament in 2005 in regard to plastic carrier bags] which read

“I am wondering whether you have been able to reintroduce your bill regarding plastic bags into the Scottish Parliament? Surely, this is the time for Scotland to take a lead on this issue.”

I went on to tell him of the overwhelming support we were having from Members of Parliament, Councillors, shoppers and traders in Banchory. However, I also had to mention that a very few shops were not in favour of the campaign and others were waiting for instructions from Head Office and, although I had had positive responses from some Head Offices, I felt that it would take legislation from government for the others to react.

This is the reply I received:-

“I have now reintroduced my Bill into the Parliament & await the outcome of a hearing at committee. The Lib/Dem on the committee is your own MSP Mike Rumbles so I know I will get good support from him.

Mike Pringle

Thank you, Mike, and good luck.

THOSE OF YOU READING THIS WHO LIVE IN SCOTLAND SHOULD BE SENDING MESSAGES TO YOUR OWN MSP’S TO URGE THEM TO ADOPT AND HELP PASS MIKE’s BILL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Banchory Primary 2/3 children were the stars of The Press & Journal in yesterday’s paper.

Under the headings ‘Pupils’ Bags Sell Out Within An Hour’ and ‘Town on a Mission to Become First in North-East to be Free of Plastic Carriers’, the P&J reported how popular the school’s project to encourage the use of reusable bags is in the town. Ruth MacDonald, their teacher and the school’s eco-co-ordinator, said

“Because it came from the children, it’s had a huge impact on people. It’s not just an adult handing out a bag.”

And, when they visited STV’s North Tonight studios and were interviewed, they showed that they had a very good understanding of the effect plastic carrier bags are having on wildlife and the environment.

Yesterday afternoon, another team member and I had been busy conducting a small survey of parents at The Hill of Banchory Primary School as to their views regarding plastic shopping bags. Again, we were met with overwhelming support and, although 25% said that they did not presently own reusable carrier bags, all said that they would be using them in the future.

This week Tesco have been talking to the Aberdeenshire Council in regard to their wish to build a new store on the outer edge of Banchory and, this weekend, they held a consultative process with Banchory residents.

 I will leave aside the arguments for or against whether Banchory needs a new supermarket [at least, for the moment] and just concentrate on the issue of plastic bags.

In their presentation to Councillors, two of the local Councillors reported to me that Tesco had stressed the point that they would hide plastic carrier bags under the counter and only give them out when customers requested them - as they have done in North Berwick.  However, when I asked the Corporate Affairs Manager to confirm this, she said that: “No, she hadn’t stressed that point, and had only indicated the North Berwick action as an example of an action they might be able to take.”

I have since been lobbying the Councillors to incorporate this action into the conditions set for the development to go ahead.

 Tesco are stressing that the store will be an ‘Eco-Store’  and ‘one of the most advanced, low carbon Tesco stores to date’ and the fact that they will be using onsite renewables, dimmable electric lights, timber from sustainable forests, energy efficiency is good but in their literature they only say:

We encourage the re-use of our carrier bags by offering extra club card points and we’ve pledged to reduce packaging by 25%, by 2010.

I still believe the Council need to pin them down in writing to not having plastic carrier bags visible on the top of any of the check-outs in this store.

This term Banchory Primary School P2/3 pupils have helped the BbC campaign in a number of ways, one of which being to produce their own cotton bags, designed by one of the pupils, Frances Sealy, aged seven. All the pupils had a go at creating a design and members of staff chose the winning design.

WH Smith’s and The Banchory Farmers’ Market added their support for the campaign this morning by inviting the children to sell the bags in the store and the market place. Before the end of the morning, they had sold out.

The Primary 2/3 Class teacher and school eco co-ordinator, Ruth MacDonald, said:

“The children have been really excited about this project.  I now have parents coming into school telling me they’ve been told off for using plastic bags in the supermarket.  So, the message is clearly getting through.  We hope people will bin plastic bags altogether.”

The Government today threatened to impose legislation early next year forcing retailers to charge for plastic bags unless they make “sufficient progress on a voluntary basis” by the end of 2008. 

The Government said that it would start to consult on how the charge would work and how to ensure that any money raised from the levy goes to environmental charities.

On February 29, the Prime Minister wrote in the Daily Mail: “I have already made clear that over time we should aim to eliminate the single-use plastic bag altogether. 

“I want to make clear that if government compulsion is needed to make the change, we will take the necessary steps.”

The comments came a year after he secured agreement in February 2007 from some 20 companies, including the main supermarket chains, to reduce the environmental impact of their plastic bags by 25 percent by the end of 2008.  However, the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP), tasked with making sure they stuck to their commitments, found only a reduction of 14 percent over the first 12 months.

“Given the damage that single-use bags inflict on the environment, the Government is committed to taking strong action,” said the Treasury.

 Unfortunately, we will have to wait to see what that ’strong action’ is, but maybe the Treasury threat of  ”change over yourselves or we’ll legislate”, will be enough to give a few more a shove.

Or, maybe, we [you] will just have to start more pbf campaigns!

BbC would like to say ‘THANK YOU’ to

Maersk Oil,

Aberdeenshire Council,

Banchory & Ternan Round Table,

Canadian Natural Resources,

PGL and Senergy,

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency,

Keep Scotland Beautiful,

North Banchory Company

and Raeburn Christie Clark & Wallace

for their support for the campaign, and for their generous contributions towards the bags which BbC will be giving out to Banchory shoppers in June.

It has been a frantic time, trying to tie-up all the loose ends regarding the funding for the bags, the choice and design of the bags and, at the same time, collate the findings of our survey of the Banchory shops.

 At virtually every shop we were met with great enthusiasm from staff members.  Of the 70 shops surveyed only three are against the scheme.  Thirty-four are fully supportive.  Eleven are supportive but would like time to source alternatives, and the remaining sixteen either need instructions from Management at Head Office, or need time to consider the matter further. 

 This is very encouraging. 

Thirty eight of the shops are prepared to put up posters.  Others support the campaign but have a company policy of not displaying posters.

Sixteen of the shops could/or would not tell us how many plastic carrier bags they gave away each week [and some of those must give away a lot of bags] but, when I totalled up the numbers the other shops had given us, it came out to nearly 65,000 pw - which comes to OVER THREE MILLION a year in a small community of approximately 6,500.  That is THREE TIMES THE NATIONAL AVERAGE!

 However, ALL the shops said they had noticed a massive difference in the last few months, with more and more customers bringing their own bags with them.  WELL DONE BANCHORY SHOPPERS.

West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine MSP Mike Rumbles and MP Robert Smith have given their backing to the campaign to make Banchory the first town in North-east Scotland to go plastic bag free.

The parliamentarians joined me for a photograph taken in Banchory High Street last Friday, March 7 to lend their support.

In a Press Release, Mr Rumbles said:

“Christina and her colleagues have done a fantastic job in highlighting this important issue and I am very pleased to support the campaign. Choosing reusable bags is a small way in which everyone can do their bit to help the environment.”

Robert Smith added:

As conveynor for the campaign, I added:

More on the survey next time.

Yesterday, one of my colleagues visited Strachan Primary School and talked with the whole school during an assembly.  She was most impressed by the questions the children asked and has asked them to make posters for the exhibition at the end of May in our local art centre, Lang Byre at Woodend Barn.  We have decided to call the exhibition ‘Bring Your Bag’.  Two of the team will be talking with Durris Primary School next week, and that only leaves the Hill of Banchory Primary which we will visit in April. 

 I feel very strongly that we have to involve the younger generation in this campaign as it will be up to them to carry forward any work to put right the environmental damage previous generations to theirs have done.

 We were told yesterday that we had been awarded funding from the Marr Area Office…… but it has to be spent by the end of March;  so we now really have to get out skates on and make final decisions on the bags.  There is so much choice on the different websites, it is all a bit of a nightmare.  I am trying to involve our ‘major’ donors in the decision as much as I can as I would like them to be happy with the final outcome.

 I am really thrilled with the way this blog has worked out.  I have had over 600 people look at it and it has only been goiong a few weeks.  That makes the time and effort spent all worthwhile.  [A big 'thank you' to my son, Andrew, who edits pages for me from time to time and who helped me to set the blog up.]

Last week was frantically busy, but another member of the BbC team and I managed to visit Drumoak School on Wednesday afternoon and we talked with the whole school during their assembly.  It is only a small school, but the children were marvellous and I am sure they will produce some interesting art work for our posters and for the exhibition at the end of May.

Most of the time has been spent surveying the various shops around the town and I am just beginning to collate all our findings.  Everyone involved has found doing both the survey of the shoppers and the survey of the shops a very interesting experience.  So far, we only seem to have 3 shops totally against the idea, a few that need to be persuaded, a many who are supportive but are not sure if they could introduce the scheme, and a lot who are fully supportive.

 As well as doing all that, I am also chasing up potential sponsors.

It never stops!

In an article entitled ‘Stores get a year to ban bags’ Gordon Brown said:

“…… our aim as a country must be to elimiunate the single-use plastic bag altogether.

….. If we want others to change, we must make it easier for people to make the right choices.  That applies to individual things each of us do, and also what our firms and shops do.

So the Government is ready to do what it can to encourage a change in the way we use these bags.

…. I want to do what I can to reduce waste and improve our planet.

…..I am convinced that we need to act, and the time to act is now.

….. I am certain that in Britain we now have a groundswell of opinion that it is right to take decisive steps to protect the planet, to safeguard the beauty of our national world and ensure our country is indeed a green and pleasant land.”

There is also an online article and message from the PM in The Guardian. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/29/greenpolitics.plasticbags

Please, send a message to No 10 [and to the Scottish and Welsh Parliamnents] to say you agree that action should be taken NOW.

A two page spread in the Feb 28 Daily Mail covered the pbf campaign in Dunoon.  Inspired by Modbury, organisers of the Dunoon initiative said that, ‘If they can do it, we can do it too’.  Campaigners in Dunoon hope that, as a result of their campaign, shoppers will become more environmentally responsible and, eventually, the idea will spread out to other places throughout Scotland.

I have to tell them [AND The Daily Mail], IT HAS.  Unfortunately, our campaign here in the North East of Scotland was not mentioned.  However, a walk down Banchory’s main street will also reveal that many local residents have already banished plastic bags.  A lot of shoppers here, too, have made a start and, like Dunoon, everyone is excited about what we can achieve.

I have just discovered that we actually HAVE made the Daily Mail online at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/text/print.html?in_article_id=523214&in_page_id=1770

For a second day running the Daily Mail ran their front page [and a further six (6) pages] under this heading. The major story was about Marks & Spencer deciding to charge for plastic carrier bags in their food departments. Sir Stuart Rose said:

“Of course we are not doing this out of the blue. We’re responding to what our customers have been telling us.” [We DO make a difference]

It’s time to break the carrier bag habit. It’s not difficult, it’s not painful, but it IS responsible. Let’d stop the talking and see some action.”

Two pages of photographs of litter around the UK followed, including one of beautiful Royal Deeside [our area, I'm afraid to say - not shown on the website].

What a week this has been. The Daily Mail has really done all PBF campaigns proud, but just in case some of you didn’t get past the stunning, but really shocking photographs [lion ©2006, Lauren Darcey/perlgurl.org.] and text of the first nine [yes, 9 pages] in the COMMENT column the editor said:

“…….. of all the threats to the Earth’s environment, none is easier to remove than this plague of plastic.

………This is ………. about changing mindsets so that all of us are prepared to make that small extra effort to bring our own bags along to the weekly shop.

Yes, there will be times when shoppers are caught unprepared - and we’ll curse having to pay a few pence extra to buy new bags.

But we are confident the great majority of our [Daily Mail] readers will agree that the time to Banish the Bags has come.

For any small sacrifice we have to make, it will be consolation enough that our streets, fields, parks seas, rivers and beaches will be cleaner for our grandchildren to enjoy.”

On the same page John Humphrys in a long article entitled ‘Alone, I can do nothing. But if all of us banish the bags, we’ll make a REAL difference’ ends by saying:

“In the end, this is about more than plastic bags - or tigers or ice caps. In some ways, they are the equivalent of the canary in the coalmine falling off its perch. If the miners fail to notice, they will pay the price.

But, just for a change, let’s take a more optimistic approach and give the final word to Shakespeare. In Julius Caesar, he wrote: “There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

If we can deal with the tide of plastic bags, who knows what else we can do.”

Thank you, Daily Mail and John Humphrys.