Leicestershire Parish Councils

Plastic Bags!

The Parish Council have established an initiative to investigate ways in which the use of plastic bags can be reduced in the village.

• On average, a person uses a plastic bag for only 12 minutes.
• About 17 million plastic bags are handed out by supermarkets in the UK every year.
• A plastic bag can take between 500 and 1000 years to 'break down' into the environment.
• Within the UK, at least 200 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches and in our towns.
• A plastic bag on the ocean presents a grave danger to wildlife.

All the (43) traders in Modbury, in Devon, driven by the experience of a local resident, whom, while filming for the BBC close to Hawaii, was horrified by the devastating effect of plastic bags on marine wildlife, have made a decision not to use plastic bags at all from 1 May 2008.

More information about this initiative will follow in due course.