Shops urged: Get drastic over plastic


Eco bags are being delivered to every home in Emsworth in a bid to turn it into a plastic bag free town.

The Emsworth Business Association, backed by Friends of the Earth, has paid for all 4,500 homes to get a free fabric bag.

They hope shoppers will use it, rather than picking up plastic ones that can damage the environment.

In the past few days, 42 volunteers have spent hours going around the streets of Emsworth delivering the bags, and every home is expected to have one by the end of the week.

Brendan Gibb-Gray, chairman of the Emsworth Business Association, hopes people use the bags and encourages them to shop locally.

‘If even five per cent of people use them and use Emsworth it will make a big difference to the traders,’ he said.

‘With the competition from supermarkets, that’s having an impact on them.

‘We are vulnerable and we have got to attract more people to shop here. The first people we’ve got to attract are our own residents.
‘I’m confident that the bags will remind people of the environment but also of Emsworth and the shopping available here.’

Mr Gibb-Gray said that he was amazed by all the people who have been helping deliver the bags, including schoolchildren.

‘The response from the residents here is that they think that it is an excellent idea,’ he said.

‘When we were stuffing the bags in envelopes more than 30 people turned up to help from all over the community.’

He said the next step in the bid to go green is to urge traders in Emsworth to stop offering shoppers plastic bags in their stores.

‘It would be unrealistic to say that plastic is going to disappear overnight because it won’t.

‘What we are trying to do is reduce it.

The evidence is that people are asking for fewer plastic bags and traders are saying “do you really need a plastic bag?”.
 

The News 5th December 2007

Town gears up to end plastic shopping bag culture

MORE than 5,000 cloth shopping bags are to be handed out to households in Emsworth in a bid to ban the plastic carrier bag.
The re-usable bags are in the Brookfield Hotel, Emsworth, waiting to be delivered to every home in the town.

Friends of the Earth is stepping up pressure on Havant also to pledge to become plastic bag free.

The organisation plans to write to Sandy Hopkins, managing director of Havant Borough Council, to urge the council to seek to be a plastic carrier bag-free zone.

Ray Cobbett, the pressure group's Hampshire co-ordinator, said: 'Local authorities have got no power to stop the use of plastic bags but it would be showing leadership to encourage people to think about use of plastic bags.'

In Emsworth the fabric bags, paid for by the Emsworth Business Association, urge people to 'Take me shopping in Emsworth. Make a difference'.

Next week a team of volunteers will take to the streets to push a bag through every letter box.

Amanda Thomas, manager of the Brookfield Hotel and treasurer of the Emsworth Business Association, said: 'I think the bags will be a desirable little shopping bag for people.

'I think it's absolutely brilliant that this is happening.

'Emsworth is so good at initiating different things.

'It's exciting that we are making a difference.'

She said the next step would be to encourage traders to stop using plastic bags altogether.

This would be by having only reusable bags available for people who do their shopping in the town.

The News 20th November 2007

The town that wants to ban plastic carrier bags

By Jenny Haworth
TRADERS in a bustling market town want to ban the traditional plastic carrier bag from its streets.
However, shopkeepers in Emsworth face one obstacle from becoming totally carrier free – retail giant Tesco.

The firm has said that it will not sign up to a total ban on bags.
Emsworth – which has 117 shops – wants to become only the second place in England to bring in such a ban.

If the scheme goes ahead, shops would stop supplying bags. Instead shoppers would have to take their own bags with them to buy groceries, or pay for a reusable or biodegradable bag, which will have a special logo.

The Emsworth Business Association is behind the idea and says the bags are clogging up landfill and damaging the environment as they are not recyclable.

EBA chairman Brendan Gibb-Gray said he was disappointed by Tesco's stance.

He said: 'To refuse this scheme sends out completely the wrong message about becoming environmentally friendly.

'It seems that unless the big stores come up with the idea themselves they are not interested in listening to anyone else. But it won't stop the scheme rolling out to all other stores and we can just hope Tesco will change their mind.'

The association, which has 96 members, decided to press forward with the plan at their last meeting.

Mr Gibb-Gray said. 'We would like to set an example. This would be good for the environment and it would be good for Emsworth. We have to start considering ways in which we can reduce our landfill. We all love England. It's green and pleasant but it won't stay like this unless we take some positive action.'

The first town to ban the supply of plastic carrier bags was Modbury in Devon.

Ray Cobbett, Hampshire co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth, who is helping to set up the scheme, visited Modbury.

'It
really works,' he said. 'You can't get a plastic bag there for love nor money. You have to take your own bag.

'I think it sends the right message. There are trillions of these bags in existence and they take 500 years to decay.'

Tesco spokeswoman Sarah Ryle said: 'Tesco would not impose a measure like that but we would actively encourage them to save more carrier bags.'

She said customers have an incentive to reuse their bags, with its Green Clubcard points scheme, in which shoppers get clubcard points that can be used to get money off goods if they reuse bags.

'The key thing is that customers have a choice and we are actively incentivising it for them to use alternatives and not to automatically take a carrier bag,' she said.

The company said the scheme has been a huge success, and Tesco has given out 600 million fewer carrier bags since it was launched in August last year.

The News 11th July 2007