Town has clean-up drive in the bag

03 May 2007

The town of Modbury in Devon has this week become the first in Britain to ban the plastic bag.
All of the town’s 43 traders and shopkeepers have agreed to use environmentally-friendly alternatives, including large, reusable cotton and jute bags, and smaller, 100% biodegradable cornstarch bags and recyclable paper bags.
The local district council supports the scheme, and plans to help expand the project into other areas. The idea is to reduce the amount of plastic rubbish floating in the ocean, killing thousands of marine life species each year.
The move was sparked by wildlife camerawoman, Rebecca Hosking, of Modbury, who saw first-hand the impact of plastic rubbish on marine life while filming in the Hawaiian islands. Returning to her hometown, she successfully managed to convince traders to stop using plastic bags.
‘It’s estimated that 100bn tonnes of plastic are floating round our world’s oceans, entangling and being ingested by pretty much every single marine creature. What we witnessed was just heart-breaking, and so unnecessary. ‘All this damage is simply caused by our throwaway living, and it seems we have to stop the problem at the source,’ Hosking said.
South Hams District Council is supporting the initiative by planning to work with the organisers to try and expand the programme to other areas which may want to follow suit, as well as integrating it with its existing organic waste-collection scheme.
The council was taking steps to ensure the compostable Modbury bags would be accepted in brown bins across the district, waste officer Greg Hills said.
Devon County Council’s executive member for environment, Councillor Margaret Rogers, said: ‘The town and shopkeepers in Modbury deserve every congratulations for what seems to be a popular enterprise. ‘They’re making a statement which people can’t fail to notice, as well as making a worthwhile contribution to tackling global warming.’

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