ACS

The world's first Plastic Bag Free Day takes place on Saturday 12th September 2009. Many local events are planned across the UK to mark the occasion and the day will celebrate the 140 towns and communities that have become, or are planning to become, plastic bag free. The day has been organised by the Marine Conservation Society which, with the support of Tom Brake, MP for Carshalton and Wallington, is asking people to say no to plastic bags.

"Around 13-billion plastic bags are used across the UK each year, 1.6-billion of them in London," said Tom Brake MP. “This is incredibly wasteful, indeed unnecessary. In the absence of a ban, we have a duty to decide against them. If we were all to stop using carrier bags for just one day, we would prevent almost 36 million being dumped in landfills and on streets."

Around the world, an estimated 300 million carrier bags are handed out to shoppers every day. In Britain, they have an average working life of twelve minutes.

For information and tools on reducing the number of carrier bags you use in your shop please the Carrier Bag Advice page (log in required): http://www.acs.org.uk/en/Advice/advice_guides/carrier_bags/