Plastic fantastic! Councillor hails ‘tremendous effort’ in reducing use of carriers
Warwickshire County Council’s portfolio holder for the environment, Cllr Alan Cockburn, has spoken of the tremendous effort made by Warwickshire residents in reducing their use of carrier bags.
Retailers have just announced reductions in the use of carrier bags of around 48% in the last three years. Nationally, figures suggest 346m fewer carrier bags are being used every month than they were in 2006 when 718million bags were given out by shops.
Plastic bags damage the environment as they take a long time to decompose and can be a danger to wildlife, particularly small animals, marine animals and birds.
Warwickshire County Council has distributed hemp duffel bags to employees and a recent poll has illustrated a dramatic shift in staff habits. 995 staff responded to the question on whether or not they used a bag for life or durable bag for shopping. 647 (65%) said that they did, an increase of 22% on 2008.
And whereas 39% had confessed to not being as eco-friendly as they could be regarding the use of carrier bags in 2008, this figure had come down to 17% this year.
Last year, the county joined forces with 250 shops in the Rugby borough to have a week without carriers when the town’s supermarkets and shops were estimated to hand out around half a million plastic bags each week.
Cllr Cockburn said: “This is tremendous news, although retailers are saying that they missed a target of a 50% reduction. It shows a real awareness and willingness on people’s part to help sustain the environment.
“The county council has lead the way with staff being made aware of alternatives to carrier bags and encouraged to use them and the dramatic improvement in their behaviour has shown what can still be achieved if we continue to drum the message home that using carrier bags is bad for the planet.”