Christchurch urged to say no to plastic bags

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Christchurch urged to say no to plastic bags

Christchurch Community Partnership is urging residents of the Borough to get behind an initiative that will say 'no' to plastic bags.

The Mayor of Christchurch, Cllr Josephine Spencer, will join members of the Partnership to launch a campaign in Christchurch that they hope will see reusable cotton bags take the place of thin plastic bags which cause untold damage to the environment.
The launch, at 12 noon in the Regent Centre in Christchurch High Street on Saturday 2 February, will be preceded at 11am by the showing of a BBC film "Message in the Waves" which demonstrates the devastation caused by our throwaway society on wildlife in the Pacific Ocean.

Colin Dewsnap, chairman of the Partnership's High Quality Environment Action Group, who has masterminded the campaign in Christchurch, said: "In the UK we use 13 billion thin plastic bags every year for an average of 12 minutes per bag, but they take hundreds of years to degrade.

"We are now joining a campaign which is taking a foothold throughout the world. In this country 132 villages, towns and cities have already signed up to support the campaign, including Dorchester, Weymouth and Wimborne. Outright bans on thin plastic bags already exist in countries like Australia and South Africa and the Chinese government has just announced it will ban them from June of this year.

"We have specially commissioned cotton bags with the Partnership logo and the message 'say no to plastic bags, please' and we are aiming to sell them for people to use again and again instead of getting plastic bags and throwing them away. Fortuitously, just as we launch our campaign, M&S will start charging for thin plastic bags, so our cotton bags will be a handy alternative."

Most plastic bags find their way to landfill adding to the serious capacity problem for waste and contributing to the creation of methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Plans for how the Partnership intends for the campaign to gather momentum will be given at the launch. All are invited to the launch and the preceding showing of the film, which is free of charge, though parents are advised that some scenes in the film show distress to wildlife which may upset younger children.
Source: Dorset For You

Permalink: http://www.thesite.co.uk/viewnewsstory.asp?newsid=2130

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