Village embraces move away from plastic bags (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Village embraces move away from plastic bags

9:23am Thursday 6th March 2008

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IT MAY be a small thing, but the plastic bag - and its future - has become big news.

With pictures of sea turtles tangled in plastic bags and reports that in the UK alone consumers get through 13 billion single-use bags a year, plastic bags have been making national headlines - and not for the right reasons.

The movement against the plastic bag is growing, with national newspapers, celebrities and politicians eager to speak out on the subject. Many people simply think it's high time that the bags were banned.

Most plastic bags get used for an average of just 20 minutes before being thrown out.

However, they then take 100 years to decompose - producing greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming, in the process.

But it doesn't have to be this way - and people in one north Hampshire village have already proved it is possible to ditch the plastic and revert to a more traditional way of carrying shopping.

On November 30 last year, Overton became only the third place in the UK to become plastic bag-free.

The move came just a few months after Peter Baker, a parish councillor and leading member of the Overton Business Association (OBA), put forward the idea at a parish council meeting.

Following weeks of persuading the village's shop owners to support the campaign, the village became plastic bag-free.

Before the plastic bag ban, the village's Co-op used to give away about 20,000 bags a month and other retailers handed out their own branded plastic carrier bags.

Now, the Co-op and the village's 30 independent shops charge customers either 5p or 10p for a sin gle corn starch bag - which is better for the environment than plastic - in the hope that shoppers will bring their own bags instead.

The shops also sell cotton tote bags for £4.50 that were specially designed for the village, by local company Sparkbox.

Mr Baker, who owns the Overton Fireplace Shop, said: "In the three months since we became plastic bag-free, I have only heard of 10 complaints.

"Almost all of the 500 cotton bags we had printed have now been snapped-up, and the village is preparing to order its second batch, with a new design."

Mr Baker added: "We are making no money from the change at all, as we are selling the cotton bags at cost price, and the OBA is subsidising the cost of the corn starch bags by 50 per cent.

"We have been very pleased with how the switchover has gone. Now, if you are seen taking a new plastic bag when you are out shopping, it gets reported around the village, so everyone tries to make sure they always bring bags with them."

Shops that have embraced the change include children's toy and bookshop The Faraway Tree and The Country Deli, in London Road.

Mel Wincott, co-owner of The Faraway Tree, said: "It is lovely walking down the streets and seeing everyone with their own bags."

Mags Stawt, owner of The Country Deli, which also stocks corn starch rather than plastic pots, said: "Customers have reacted really well. It has not been that difficult for us to make the change - although I'm still looking for an alternative to plastic wrap."

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