Oxfordshire town to ban plastic bags

Oxfordshire county council has joined forces with Wantage and District Chamber of Commerce to ban plastic bags in Wantage, south west of Oxford.

Residents are being asked to submit possible designs for re-usable eco-bags, which will be printed with non toxic water-based ink, to replace plastic carrier bags.

Two Eco bags will be produced in December – the Fairtrade Cotton Bag- for lighter items and the Jute bag for heavier items such as vegetables or bottles.

Over 40 businesses belonging to the Wantage & District Chamber of Commerce have pledged to stop handing out plastic bags and encourage their customers to use Wantage Eco bags instead.

Daniel Dempsey, Oxfordshire county council's commercial waste reduction officer, said:”People seem to be in the habit of accumulating several plastic bags on each shopping trip. This is an incredible waste of the precious resources needed to produce a bag, including oil.”

Matthew Chapman, chairman of the Wantage Chamber of Commerce, added: “We will be encouraging all businesses to adopt the Wantage eco bag. With their support, and that of local schools and community groups, we will be able to promote Wantage at a national level while reducing unsightly waste and the use of landfill sites.”

Concerns

However, plastic manufacturers have serious concerns about the impact of removing plastic bags from the supply chain as Peter Woodall, head of communications at the UK Carrier Bag Consortium said:

“Over 300,000 tonnes of plastic bags are being recycled and manufactured into high-recycled content products. The fact that the UK produces plastic bags and packaging enables us to invest in recycling, removing the plastic bags takes away a massive recycling initiative.”

Mr Woodhall also urged the public to look at the “science rather than the spin” he explained: “The Scottish parliament spent two years investigating the impact of removing plastic bags from the waste stream and the overwhelming conclusion is that it leads to unintended environmental impacts and more waste being created.

“For example over 70% of people reuse lightweight plastic bags for refuse sacks and cat litter. In Ireland when the public were deprived of bags they started to buy more heavy weight bin bags. Another impact is that lightweight cotton bags still have to be imported and this isn't energy efficient,” he said.

” We need to exorcise common understanding for the whole of the supply chain to ensure the environment is protected in the best possible way. ” He added

The winner for the Eco Bag design competition will be notified by the 28th September. 

•  This week's letsrecycle.com Opinions column sees Joy Blizzard of Shropshire county council discussing her view on technology difficulties arising in supermarkets from the re-use of bags. Click here for the Opinions section.