Success of campaign to reduce plastic bag use

An initiative to discourage south Shropshire shoppers from using plastic carrier bags, and encourage them to use reusable bags, has reported encouraging results and been praised for its efforts to cut waste.

The South Shropshire Plastic Bag-free Towns project was launched in 2008 through the Shropshire Community Recycling Network, thanks to a grant of £3,000 from Shropshire Council, Waste Management.

The campaign was spearheaded by a small group of volunteers from the Church Stretton Climate Care group, who were the first to attempt to try to create a plastic bag free town in Shropshire.

The Church Stretton group has distributed thousands of free reusable organic fairtrade cotton bags, local businesses have begun selling reusable bags and there has been a major educational drive with displays in shop windows, talks and roadshows to encourage less wasteful shopping habits.

In the 2008/2009 Clean Britain Awards, Church Stretton won a bronze medal, with the judges being particularly impressed with the town’s efforts to reduce plastic bags.

Other campaigns to reduce plastic bag use under the South Shropshire Plastic Bag-free Towns project include:

- Ludlow Local Produce Market did a project in early 2008 to replace conventional plastic bags with environmentally-friendly cornstarch bags which decompose fully in the correct composting conditions.

- The Wasteless Society in Bishops Castle have been selling reusable bags in local shops to help generate an income for their community/environmental activities, as well as to reduce plastic bag use.

- Cleobury Mortimer Environmental Forum working with the local Chamber of Commerce carried out a successful project to get 15 trades in the town to replace plastic bags with biodegradable compostable plastic bags (‘biobags’) which could replace non-degradable plastic bags.

- The National Trust, who own the Carding mill valley site, report they have reduced the number of plastic bags they give out by 75 per cent.

Councillor Michael Wood, Chairman of Shropshire Waste Partnership, said:
“On average each person in Shropshire uses 300 disposable plastic bags per year. That’s a staggering 69 million bags in Shropshire alone! This translates to hundreds of tonnes of waste each year, which I’m sure is of concern to all.

“This innovative and excellent project has sought to remind people that plastic bags can be recycled in most of the major supermarkets and that they can avoid them in the first place with reusable bags.

“It is not possible to measure directly the number of plastic bags we have reduced in the county, but if the national trend is reflected locally then we are clearly heading in the right direction.” (see note 2)

Further information

(1) The plastic bag-free idea has been especially popular in the south of Shropshire because of the highly visible litter impact plastic bags have on this area of outstanding natural beauty.

However, initiatives have also been carried out elsewhere in Shropshire to reduce plastic bag use.

- Rea Valley Environmental Network have also been funded to distribute reusable bags in the Pontesbury, Minsterley, Hanwood area, branded with their Buy Local campaign.

- Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth, working with Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council, carried out a campaign to make the indoor market in Shrewsbury plastic bag-free, distributing 2000 free reusable bags and getting traders to start selling bag-for-life bags.

(2) New figures released last month (February 2009) by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) show that the UK’s leading high street and grocery retailers have exceeded a voluntary target to reduce the environmental impact of carrier bags by 25 per cent by the end of 2008.

Since 2006, retailers have delivered a 40 per cent reduction in the environmental impact of carrier bags, as measured by the reduction in the amount of virgin plastic used. Retailers have achieved this by reducing the number of carrier bags issued, increasing recycled content used and reducing carrier bag weight.

13 March 2009

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