9/21/2009
There are many ways to combat climate change and one of the simplest and quickest to introduce is reduction in, and eventual elimination of the use of plastic bags. The average household uses ten plastic carrier bags each week and Hastings could follow the example of other towns and cities around the UK by encouraging shops not to give away single-use plastic bags and residents to re-use bags. At present 13 billion plastic bags are given away in Britain each year and a huge amount of energy is needed for their manufacture; furthermore, it takes hundreds of years for each bag to rot down and everyone knows the nuisance and unsightliness of discarded bags on our streets and beaches and in our parks and gardens, not to mention the cost to taxpayers of their collection and disposal and their danger to wildlife.
For all these reasons I introduced a motion to Council in February last year calling for the council to encourage local retailers, businesses and residents to eliminate the use of plastic bags with the eventual aim of making Hastings a plastic bag-free town. We were not calling for any kind of compulsion but we strongly believe that, as is happening in places as diverse as Brighton, the London boroughs and the village of Modbury in Devon, determined action by the local authority can persuade traders and local people to give up their bags and help make their community a more sustainable one. We were pleased that our motion was overwhelmingly supported by Council and that the principle of creating a more sustainable town is accepted. Since then many shops and businesses have significantly reduced the number of plastic bags which they give to their customers and residents too have been playing their part by either re-using plastic bags or doing their shopping with an environmentally friendly 'bag for life'. Hastings certainly isn't plastic-bag free yet but it's made a good start along that road.
Posted: 9/21/2009