Doing bags for the environment

8:17am Wednesday 6th February 2008

It is estimated that 17.5 billion plastic bags are handed out in the UK by major supermarkets every year, with each person in the UK using an average of 290 plastic bags annually, most ending up in landfill.

Love them or hate them, plastic carrier bags continue to play a part in our daily lives.

Despite the bad press surrounding the disposable bags - which have become a symbol of waste - shoppers can still be seen in high streets and out-of-town shopping centres, happily lugging around handfuls of them.

But, locally and nationally, efforts are being made to cut their use. In his first big speech on the environment since becoming Prime Minister, Gordon Brown threw his weight behind the growing campaign against disposable carriers by pledging to eliminate its use.

Last year 22 high street supermarket chains agreed a voluntary pact to cut the environmental impact of the bags they give out by 25 per cent by 2008.

Announcing talks with retailers in November last year, however, the Prime Minister said he believed it was possible to phase them out completely.

Richard Sykes is proud to work for what is perhaps the greenest supermarket in the country.

Last year Booths - which has branches across the north of England including one in Ilkley - became the first supermarket to announce that it had met a national target to reduce plastic bag usage by a quarter.

"We have reduced usage by 27 per cent, which is more than we thought we would achieve in such a short time," he says.

"A year ago we removed the carrier bag dispensers," says Richard, who manages the Ilkley store. Customers are still given carrier bags, but instead of handing them out, we ask them if they need one.

"We marketed the concept that we are trying to do our bit for the environment, as we signed up to the Government initiative to reduce the use of carrier bags."

At the time of the Booths announcement, in October last year, Tesco had achieved a 15 per cent reduction, Waitrose 14 per cent, Sainsbury's 6.5 per cent and Asda had no change."

"Overall, customers have reacted favourably - most say they are glad that we are doing this," adds Richard. "Some have said they would like us to stop using the bags completely, while others believe that they, as customers, should be allowed the make the decision."

Booths sells biodegradable jute bags at £2.49, with 25p from each sale being donated to the woodland conservation charity, the Woodland Trust.

Bags for Life are also used, and replaced free of charge.

"The measures have encouraged people to bring their own bags. We have put signs up in the cars park to remind people who have brought carriers, not to leave them in the car," says Richard.

"It is not a gimmick, we are very serious about this and we are achieving results ahead of our competitors."

Across the UK, there is a strong move to rid us of carrier bags. Locally, Saltaire has a "Ban the Bag" campaign, and Bradford Council has pledged 1,000 "bags for life" for residents in Shipley. Pupils at Woodhouse Grove School are selling Fairtrade reusable canvas bags as part of a business project.

Here's what the country's leading supermarkets are doing to reduce use of plastic bag in their stores: Morrisons Bradford-based Morrisons has introduced a number of measures to reduce the environmental impact of it standard plastic bags by 25 per cent by the end of this year as well as aiming to increase the recycled content to 25 per cent, and 50 per cent by 2010.

A spokesman said: "Our standard carrier is designed to offer exceptional performance and be suitable for reuse, with a minimum of resources used in their production. A message printed on each one states: Please reuse this bag and help protect the environment.'"

Alternative bags include the recyclable multi-trip "Charity Bag" made entirely from recycled material, and a small and large-size durable woven bag which can also be recycled.

Most recently, Morrisons has introduced a fresh alternative to plastic carriers - two polypropylene (this can be recycled) reusable bags which can be used over and over again.

The spokesman added: "It is also our policy to issue bags as customers require, rather than put them at the end of the checkout."

Tesco Under Tesco's bag reuse scheme, customers collect green Clubcard points for reusing shopping bags of any sort, including bags issued by competitors. Since the scheme was launched last August, Tesco has saved one billion bags. All Tesco's free bags are biodegradable, meaning that once in active landfill, they will break down into CO2, water, minerals and organic matter, leaving no harmful residue.

"We're about giving customers all the information they need to make an informed choice," says a spokesman. "Incentive to change does work as our measures have helped to save more than one billion bags that would previously have been given out," says a spokesman.

For 79p, shoppers can also buy a cotton Be-Eco bag, that holds up to 35 carriers.

Sainsbury's Sainsbury's has turned to fashion for help in drawing attention to unnecessary plastic bag usage. Last spring, shoppers queued for hours to get their hands on a special-edition Anya Hindmarch bag bearing the words "I'm Not A Plastic Bag". The supermarket chain is once again joining forces with We Are What We Do, the global social-change movement behind the Anya Hindmarch bags, with another reusable shopper saying "Plastic Ain't My Bag."

Sainsbury's - which has also held special days when plastic carriers are banned in favour of a 10p reusable bag - has seen the use of its carrier drop significantly in the last six months.

Beverley Whitfield, Sainsbury's bag buyer, said: We believe that encouraging customers to shop with re-usable bags is the best solution and we hope this new bag will make it even more appealing for customers to do just that."

Asda Asda's "Bag for Life" is now only 5p. They also sell jute "Choose To Reuse" bags. The company has introduced a Green Vouchers for Schools scheme, where each time you choose an alternative to a new carrier bag at the checkout, you are rewarded with vouchers to collect for schools, who can exchange them for eco-themed prizes.

Betty's Customers at Bettys can now do their bit to save the planet by investing in a high quality, organic cotton carrier sporting the Bettys logo, pictured right. The durable carriers, costing £3 for a large and £2.50 for a smaller size, are made by a small, family-owned business in India which lives and works by the principles of investing in its staff and in the community. And for every bag sold, a tree will be planted by Bettys & Taylors through the firm's "Trees for Life" appeal. Hazel Bone, manager of Bettys Ilkley, said: "We've never used plastic bags in our shops, but it's great to now have such a beautifully crafted carrier which can not only be used time and time again, but which also gives something back to our environment."

Plastic bag factfile

• Plastic bags sent to landfill sites take around 50 years to fully decay.

• Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web, when animals accidentally ingest them.

• Plastic bags pollute our soil, rivers and oceans.

• Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags.

• Windblown plastic bags are so common in Africa that a cottage industry exists, harvesting them to weave hats and bags. Once group uses 30,000 each month.

• Customers who use reusable bags an average of 20 times a year save 90million disposable bags each year.

• Introduced in 2002, Ireland's "plastax" of about 30 cents (20p) on each bag has led to a 90 per cent reduction in use.

• Australia has launched a Say No To Carrier Bags' campaign, and in Taiwan and Hong Kong the governments make supermarkets charge for bags on at least two days a week.

(source cottonkids.co.uk)

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