Plastic bag-free bid for town

Oswestry could become one of the first plastic bag free zones in Shropshire, if a campaign being run by borough councillor Ron Jones proves a success.

Councillor Jones wants the plastic carrier bag to become a thing of the past in the market town.

He is asking the main stores in Oswestry to consider promoting "bags for life" and other alternatives.

Mr Jones, of St Martins, said before the advent of the town's supermarkets, people took their own shopping bags to town with them.

"Even when the first supermarkets came in, such as Kwik Save, shoppers would help themselves to cardboard boxes in the store and use those to take their shopping home in."

He said Oswestry's share of the 14 billion carrier bags used in Britain each year could be up to eight million and caused huge environmental problems, whether blowing around fields or being sent to landfill.

He said some towns, such as Modbury in south Devon, had already declared themselves plastic bag-free.

"It is a small step we could take to preserve the environment," he said. "All we have to do is to remember to take re-usable bags with us when we go shopping or invest in those trolley boxes that can be transferred straight to the car."

Oswestry's Aldi store charges for plastic bags and, like Sainsbury's, promotes bags for life.

Andrew Faulks, owner of Stans Superstore in St Martins, said the store recently promoted its own bag for life, giving hundreds away to schoolchildren, helping to cut the total of plastic bags used there by 20 per cent.

Four towns in Britain have become plastic bag free with about 100 others, including Llangollen, hoping to follow.