Plastic Bag Free Chorlton Campaign

Already the Sustainable Chorlton Group (formerly known as Chorlton Fair trade and Food Group) campaigned to get Chorlton Fair trade status in 2006. Since then they have researched and published a report called 'Chorlton Eats' funded by Food Futures, City Council, which recommends how to encourage and widen the production and purchase of local, organic and fairly traded food by different communities in Chorlton.

Now Sustainable Chorlton would like to start with a new campaign for a plastic bag free Chorlton. If you are interested in becoming involved then come along to the planning meeting on Wednesday 3rd October at 7:30pm at Chorlton Library. Annually 8 billion plastic bags are used in the UK alone, that’s 166 bags per person per year and on average we use a plastic bag for 12 minutes. However the bags will last indefinitely and pollute the countryside, rivers and seas. Plastic bag pollution is completely unnecessary. 50 years ago, plastic shopper bags did not exist and no-one missed them. Let’s say No to plastic bags in Chorlton.

PLASTIC BAG FREE CHORLTON
MISSION STATEMENT

Sustainable Chorlton is a community group of committed volunteers who would like to encourage the local community to take positive actions to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. This is a not for profit group, in association with Action for Sustainable Living, . The idea of a ‘Plastic Bag Free Chorlton’ is one of a number of initiatives by Sustainable Chorlton to raise awareness of environmental issues in our locality.

• What we are asking for is NOT a ban on plastic bags in Chorlton. We would like to liberate consumers from depending on plastic bags.
• We want to reiterate the three R's: reduce, reuse and recycle.
• We are asking shops to encourage shoppers at the point of sale; do they really need a plastic bag for what they have purchased?
• We would like shops to be able to provide an alternative solution, such as a bag for life, for consumers to have a choice about what they use.
• We would like to see more facilities in Chorlton, for shoppers to bring back their plastic bags and re-use them.
• Most importantly, we are concentrating on educating the local population about the damage that plastic bags (and other plastic waste) has on the environment.
• We would like to work with local retailers to take action to make this campaign effective, by providing support, advice and celebrating their achievements.

In this way we hope to create a culture where people automatically bring a bag for life with them when they go shopping.

We hope to significantly reduce the amount of plastic bags used in Chorlton. We will be running a trial period of six months from 15th March 08 to 15th September 08, where we will measure the amount of plastic bags used in focus shops.