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We've all been guilty of accepting an unnecessary plastic bag while shopping, or forgetting to take a reusable bag with us -- nobody's perfect. What's needed, then, is an outright ban... which is precisely what over 90 per cent of Londoners have said they would support, in a recent survey conducted by London Councils.
"We asked Londoners what they thought in a public consultation," says the report. "91.5 per cent of respondents said that they supported London Councils' proposals to introduce either a levy or an outright ban on throwaway shopping bags in the capital."
Another popular solution was to charge 10p per bag, reducing demand and encouraging people to carry their shopping in reusable bags, cram it all into their pockets or whatever else they can think of.
13 billion bags are used each year in the UK, which is a number far too big to properly comprehend. It equates to 220 bags per person, every year. And because only one in 200 is actually recycled, the vast majority of them are sent to landfill where they can take up to 400 years to decompose.
"It is estimated that reducing the number of plastic bags in the UK by just 25 per cent will eliminate 58,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year -- the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the road," says the report.
The findings will be presented to all sorts of council big-wigs, and will hopefully cause some kind of plastic bag reduction policy to enter into the 10th London Local Authorities Bill.
"Londoners have clearly signalled that they want action on plastic bags, feeling strongly enough to call for an outright ban. I am sure London's council leaders will listen to their calls before finalising the proposal in the tenth London Local Authorities Bill," says Councillor Sean Brennan, vice-chair of London councils.
09 November 2007 04:22pm
Research shows that 45 per cent of shoppers have bought a Bag for Life but only 12 per cent use them... A different approach is being taken by companies like Bags of Change whose reusable bags get you discounts on your shopping - so you have an additional incentive to remember to BYO. It's a new scheme but a great idea, let's hope it takes off.
http://www.bagsofchange.co.uk
10 November 2007 07:39pm
I've been using fabric bags ever since ASDA brought them out a couple of years ago - and now I shop in Tesco, so I get extra points for using my bags. It actually feels weird when I *don't* use my fabric bags these days - mainly because the max capacity of a supermarket bag is about 2 tins of beans. I'm intending to give all my rellies shopping bags as a Christmas extra. I know my MIL won't use it/them, but I feel a point needs to be made! (ps. I'm not in London, but I used to be, I'm now in a market town in the NW)
11 November 2007 12:21pm
I think the question I'm asking myself when I read this article is: "Why haven't we done this already?"; it stares us in the face when we go out shopping at supermarkets that we're using too many plastic bags, and unless you're hideously uneducated you'll know how much of a carbon footprint they leave behind. Personally, I almost always don't ask for a bag with my purchases, whatever I'm buying.
Re-usable bags should have been forced on the public a while ago, but roll on if the time's coming now.
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