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FIRST INTERNATIONAL PLASTIC BAG FREE DAY
Saturday Shoppers Urged to Ditch the Plastic Bags on the 12th September.
The world’s first Plastic Bag Free Day takes place on the 12th September 2009. The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is proud to support the day, which will encourage shoppers everywhere to ditch plastic bags for good, and to take reusable bags with them instead.
Joining in is easy, and can range from simply not taking plastic bags when out shopping to helping your community or town go Plastic Bag Free. Many local events are planned across the UK to mark the occasion, and the day will also act as a celebration for the 140 towns and communities that have gone, or are planning to go, Plastic Bag Free.
Plastic bags are the ultimate symbol of our throw-away, disposable lifestyles. The 2008 MCS Beachwatch litter survey found 8,174 plastic bags littering UK beaches on just one weekend. The next Beachwatch Big Weekend takes place one week after Plastic Bag Free Day, when we hope to record a decrease in this number. It is vital that we all act now. Animals, especially marine turtles, accidentally eat plastic bags and this may cause them to starve to death.
Dr Sue Kinsey, MCS Pollution Programme Manager said, “This is a fantastic initiative and will hopefully act as an incentive for everyone who still relies on plastic bags to leave them at the check out. We need as many people as possible to take part to make the day a success and show that one of the most preventable forms of plastic litter can easily be stopped. Plastic bags are a menace to marine wildlife and blight our landscape. Groups as far afield as Canada and Hawaii are taking part and making this a truly international day!”
The Marine Conservation Society has prepared a free pack to help anyone who wants to make their community Plastic Bag Free. For more information, and to find out how you can get involved, please go to www.mcsuk.org.
Go to www.channel4.com and type plastic bags into their search engine.
Plastic bag revolt halves nationwide use to 450m
JOHN VIDAL – Environment Editor
Small green revolution reaches milestone as government figures reveal shoppers are rejecting plastic bags.
Plastic bags can take 1,000 years to decompose. Photograph: Stringer Shanghai/Reuters
It began in 2007 with a few traders in the small town of Modbury in Devon refusing to give out plastic bags. But yesterday their small green revolution reached a national milestone: British shoppers have nearly halved the number of single-use bags they get through.
Figures from Wrap, the government’s waste and resources programme, show that whereas 870m single-use plastic bags were handed out in the UK in May 2006, the figure for May 2009 was down to 450m – a 48% reduction, and 4,740 tonnes to send to landfill against 8,890 tonnes in May 2006.
Nationwide rejection of the bags, which take up to 1,000 years to decompose and clog drains and pollute oceans, followed a government challenge to retailers to voluntarily halve bag use by June 2009.
“Over the past year or so, we’ve invested £3m to help our customers change the habit of a lifetime. We’ve cut the number of single-use bags our customers use by 53%,” said an Asda spokeswoman.
But Asda still expressed frustration at the scheme. “The populist appeal of plastic bags has obscured more pressing issues, such as packaging reduction, carbon and energy use, and waste.”
Further reductions should be implemented through a carrot not a stick approach, and at retailers’ own discretion, it said. The €0.15 (12p) tax introduced in the Republic of Ireland in 2002 has cut bag use by more than 90%.
Yesterday the Welsh Assembly government said the dramatic reduction in bag use would not affect its proposal to introduce a 15p charge on single-use carrier bags. “Wales is still using 27m plastic bags a month, or 324m a year, ” said the environment minister Joan Davidson.
Rebecca Hosking, the BBC filmmaker who persuaded Modbury and other towns to reject plastic bags after seeing how they killed wildlife around the world, yesterday said the supermarkets had fought hard against the voluntary reduction in bag use. “What has been achieved is fantastic but they have complained non-stop like little children. You’d have thought they were being asked to go on a vegan diet or something. This has not been difficult at all. No-one has lost trade, or gone out of business in Modbury or anywhere else,” she said.
The plastic bag issue has divided environmentalists with some arguing the action is inconsequential while others say it is an important symbol of reduced consupmtion and often leads to further environmental acts.
The Marine Conservation Society has posted the following on its web-site and, as Banchory is participating in this day, I thought you should all be aware of what is going on. It is a great idea and we in Banchory hope that, if shoppers find that they can do without single-use plastic bags for one day, they can do so on following days.
I urge anyone reading this post to spread the word.
Plastic Bag Free Day
The UK’s first Plastic Bag Free Day will be on the 12th September 2009. MCS is supporting the day to get everyone to think about how much we rely on plastic packaging, and how easily we can all make a change to benefit our environment.
We are asking shoppers to ditch the plastic bags for good! Just take a reusable bag with you when you shop.
There are many ways you can support Plastic Bag Free day. Leave plastic bags at the checkout, help to make your town Plastic Bag Free or join in the celebrations at town’s that have already stopped using plastic bags. You could also write to shops and supermarkets asking them to support the day.
Town’s that are holding events to celebrate Plastic Bag Free day are shown below. More to come soon!
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- Salisbury |
- Seaham |
- East Dulwich |
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- Selkirk |
- Banchory |
- Chesham |
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- Brighton |
- Overton |
- Kew |
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- Whitby |
- Harrogate |
- Haddington |
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- Ullapool |
- Modbury |
- Helston |
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- Lambeth |
- Pontypridd |
- Bridgend |
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- Kinrossshire |
- Worthing |
- Hebden Bridge |
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- Doncaster |
- Plymouth |
- Wellington |
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- Chepstow |
- Abergeveny |
- Monmouth |
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- Newport |
- Edinburgh |
- Maidstone |
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- Saltash |
- Penrith |
- Carmarthen |
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- Southwark |
- Bridgend |
- Market Harborough |
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- Netherfield |
- Henfield |
- North Berwick |
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- Kingston |
- Lyme Regis |
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Towns that are, or are planning to go, Plastic Bag Free are listed here. Click to see if your town is among them.
To keep up to date with what MCS is doing for Plastic Bag Free day, and our other work, why not sign up to our free e-newsletter? Click here
Why should we all go Plastic Bag Free?
Each household in the UK uses 300 plastic bags every year. Even when we dispose of them correctly, plastic bags often get blown out of bins and landfill sites and end up littering our land and oceans.
In the sea plastic bags look very similiar to jellyfish. Many marine animals, such as whales and turtles, accidentally eat the plastic bags but they can block their digestive systems and may cause them to starve to death.
MCS organises beach cleans and litter surveys and plastic items are the most commonly found items. Plastic litter has increased by 146% since 1994. In 2008 our volunteers found 8,174 plastic bags on just one weekend.
This has to stop, and it is easy to change. Join in on Plastic Bag Free day and ditch the plastic bags for good!
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