Ban the bag!

Plastic bags are the curse of our consumer society – on average Britain uses 17 billion of them every year which is equivalent to 300 for every man, woman and child in the country.

It has been calculated that we use each plastic bag for less than 12 minutes, yet it litters the environment, in particular, the marine environment for decades and is responsible for killing at least 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles every year.

In today’s Guardian  there is an interesting article about the increasing number of cities, towns and villages who are banning the use of plastic bags (www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/22/recycling).

I know that in the town where I work a project to ban the bag is underway too – it is following the example set by Modbury in Devon which became the first town in Britain to become plastic bag free.