Eco-friendly Shipley residents can do their bit for the planet by getting a smart new sustainable bag-for-life - in exchange for a single plastic carrier bag.

The Shipley Shopper, a biodegradable bag made from durable, inexpensive jute is available in exchange for a plastic carrier bag from Shipley Town Hall, the town library and the Information Centre.

An average person uses up to 300 plastic bags per year and many retailers are cutting down on the amount of plastic bags they dispense in a bid to be more environmentally aware.

The design on the attractive bag is an artist's impression of the famous Shipley Shopper' statue by local artist Morwenna Catt which stands in the towns centre.

Shipley Town Centre Manager Yvonne Crosley, who has pioneered this scheme on behalf of Bradford Council, said: "It's a very useful bag and we used a local supplier The Biodegradable Bag Company who are award winning. We also researched the ethnicity of the bags.

"Through collecting plastic carriers from the public we have taken hundreds out of circulation which we can now recycle, it's been a great success."

Shipley Shopper bags were first made available at the launch of the Shipley Shopper sculpture and all three hundred of the first production were distributed on the day, Zab Chughtai of the Biodegradble Bag Company said: "We are really proud to be supplying the council with the jute bags, our family run company has been making packaging for 25 years. We think that what Bradford Council is doing with the Shipley shopper is a really pioneering move. It's great that things like this are happening in Yorkshire. This is what consumers want, they have pushed us to be more inventive in manufacture."