Bit of a premature leak to the press about plans (following on from my post here in December) to make Morpeth a plastic-bag free town. I was hoping to hold back till after the elections – but well, might as well give a proper preview…
There’s no real co-ordinated plan, that’s the problem:
- of course, the farmers’ market was ahead of the game, with cotton shopping bags produced some 5-6 years ago (and many people are still using them).
– and now, several shops are already making people request plastic bags rather than give them out automatically
- the Borough Council are planning to buy-in some 50,000 compostable corn-starch bags which we hope to sell to the market traders to give out at the Wednesday Market. We reckon they’ll last 4-5 months. We’re also looking at longer lasting cotton shopping bags, which if printed up with ‘Castle Morpeth Markets’ will become collectors items in a couple of years time
- the Chamber of Trade are considering buying-in more corn-starch bags to maintain the supply, if the CMBC bags go down well
- and Morpeth Town Council are also planning to come in on the act
So – overall – there’s already real popular support for the idea, and the hope is that there should be enough of a drive over the summer to get people out of the habit of using plastic bags, and generate a bit of ‘consumer demand’ for alternatives. And yes – Morpeth may well be the first ‘plastic bag-free town in the North East’
Showing posts with label plastic bags. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plastic bags. Show all posts
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Morpeth - a plastic bag-free town?
A number of people have spoken to me about making Morpeth a ‘plastic bag-free’ town – following the lead of places like Modbury.
About 17.5 million plastic carrier bags are used worldwide each year, with the majority ending up on landfill sites. Discarded plastic carrier bags block gutters and drains, choke farm animals and marine wildlife and pollute the soil as they gradually break down. Plastic bags clogging the drain network was a contributing factor to the recent floods in Mumbhai (formerly Bombay).
A plastic carrier bag can take between 500 to 1000 years to break down and many of the ‘degradable’ bags (eg photo-degradable) actually only breakdown to inert plastic dust.
Unlike Modbury, neither the Town nor the Borough Council can actually ban the use of plastic bags – and while certain stores are promoting “bags for life” as an alternative to a plastic bag, the chain stores are very unlikely to adopt ‘local Morpeth’ practice, especially when they use plastic bags for advertising.
However consumer and peer pressure can be very powerful. Both Councils can encourage shoppers refuse plastic bags and help traders provide alternatives.
A starting point is to make the Wednesday Market plastic bag free. The two Councils are planning to provide 3-4 months-worth of both re-usable cotton or sisal bags and genuinely biodegradable bags (made entirely from cornstarch and fully compostable) to market traders from February. Whether the initiative expands or carries on after that will depend heavily on the response from shoppers, market traders and shopkeepers.
From a Green point of view, the immediate impact of reusable shopping bags is fairly minor - removing plastic bags from our lives won't make us a sustainable culture anymore than saving the polar bear will stop global warming - but it is a powerful symbol. The disposable plastic bag is the icon of our unsustainable lifestyles. Campaigns to ban them help people to start questioning how and where products are made, how they are transported and where they go when we're finished with them. It makes us look at all consumer goods in a different light.
About 17.5 million plastic carrier bags are used worldwide each year, with the majority ending up on landfill sites. Discarded plastic carrier bags block gutters and drains, choke farm animals and marine wildlife and pollute the soil as they gradually break down. Plastic bags clogging the drain network was a contributing factor to the recent floods in Mumbhai (formerly Bombay).
A plastic carrier bag can take between 500 to 1000 years to break down and many of the ‘degradable’ bags (eg photo-degradable) actually only breakdown to inert plastic dust.
Unlike Modbury, neither the Town nor the Borough Council can actually ban the use of plastic bags – and while certain stores are promoting “bags for life” as an alternative to a plastic bag, the chain stores are very unlikely to adopt ‘local Morpeth’ practice, especially when they use plastic bags for advertising.
However consumer and peer pressure can be very powerful. Both Councils can encourage shoppers refuse plastic bags and help traders provide alternatives.
A starting point is to make the Wednesday Market plastic bag free. The two Councils are planning to provide 3-4 months-worth of both re-usable cotton or sisal bags and genuinely biodegradable bags (made entirely from cornstarch and fully compostable) to market traders from February. Whether the initiative expands or carries on after that will depend heavily on the response from shoppers, market traders and shopkeepers.
From a Green point of view, the immediate impact of reusable shopping bags is fairly minor - removing plastic bags from our lives won't make us a sustainable culture anymore than saving the polar bear will stop global warming - but it is a powerful symbol. The disposable plastic bag is the icon of our unsustainable lifestyles. Campaigns to ban them help people to start questioning how and where products are made, how they are transported and where they go when we're finished with them. It makes us look at all consumer goods in a different light.
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