Marine Conservation Society MCS HOW TO GO PLASTIC BAG FREE

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1 MCS Marine Conservation Society HOW TO GO PLASTIC BAG FREE

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3 You are not alone Getting towns and communities to become Plastic Bag Free has been tried and tested, so don t waste time reinventing the wheel! In this booklet the Marine Conservation Society litter team have gathered some great ideas to get you started. But please feel free to use your own ideas to make your campaign work in your area.

4 Getting started 1 A good place to start is to ask shoppers to complete a questionnaire on whether they would support a Plastic Bag Free initiative. This can highlight the support behind the campaign and give you evidence to take to traders and your local council. DOWNLOAD For an example of a questionnaire go to our Plastic Bag Free resources section at the Marine Conservation Society website 2 Tell everyone what you are planning to do. This is essential. Make sure as many people as possible know what you are doing and why. Hold meetings, show films, have stalls in the high street, visit schools and get articles in the local press. FACT The Gloucester Road Alternative Bag group found that over 90% of shoppers in their survey would support a campaign.

5 Photos right: (top) Bird's carcass full of plastic, (middle) Albatross chick and (bottom) an Hawaiian monk seal with beach debris. R. Hosking/ BBC 3 Organise an initial meeting for everyone. Do not leave anyone out. Tell everyone about going Plastic Bag Free and the benefits it will have. Present them with well thought out alternatives and give examples of towns that have already gone Plastic Bag Free. Be prepared to answer all possible questions about problems traders or residents might face. Hopefully the meeting will be positive and you can agree on a date for the launch! It is important that the campaign looks professional as this will draw in support 4 and confidence in your actions. Talk to local artists about creating a design theme for the campaign, or run a school competition to create a logo. Having a cotton bag with the community logo has been a popular alternative to plastic bags. See the back of the bag pattern for more ideas. For a list of Plastic Bag Free towns go to i Images: Pictures of other group s alternative bags? DOCUMENTARY Message in the Waves is a powerful BBC film documentary on the dangers of plastic litter in the marine environment. Try and arrange a public viewing. For more information visit

6 CASE STUDY Gloucester Road, Bristol Who are they? The Gloucester Road Alternative Bag (GRAB) campaign was started by a small group of local residents. What did they do? Three shops ran an initial week-long plastic bag free trial which proved enormously popular. A plastic pledge was signed by retailers who agreed to phase out their existing stock of plastic bags and supply compostable or reusable alternatives. On the day of the launch GRAB hosted a street celebration, with music, a craft market and a BBQ. Retailers offered special deals and food tastings to draw out the crowds and the cloth bag designed by a local artist sold out on the day. Plans for the future? Enabling the shops to take ultimate ownership of the campaign. Hardest part Figuring out how to keep up the momentum and maintain the pledge in the less dedicated shops. TOP TIP Our positive customer survey and the trial runs were both very useful tools of persuasion.

7 Getting three shops to agree to trying a week long trial was a tremendous boost to our campaign - and things soon snowballed from there. Photo (above): Gloucester Road Alternative Bag launch day. R. Matthiessen

8 T h i s p l a s t i c b a g f r e e i n i t i a t i v e i s s u p p o r t e d b y t h e M a r i n e C o n s e r v a t i o n S o c i e t y Marine Conservation Society Make it happen Set a launch date for when the town and traders will be Plastic Bag Free. Publicise this as much as possible so that customers remember to bring bags with them when they shop. WE VE GONE PLASTIC BAG FREE P l e a s e r e m e m b e r t o b r i n g a b a g F i n d o u t a b o u t t h e p r o b l e m o f p l a s t i c i n t h e s e a a n d h o w y o u c a n h e l p a t w w w. m c s u k. o r g MCS Put up posters about the campaign around the town and postcards in participating shops. Feel free to use the post and postcard included in this pack - for more copies contact the Marine Conservation Society at info@mcsuk.org or Alternatively why not design your own poster with a community logo? Make sure there are suitable bag alternatives in place before the change over. Each shop may have slightly different bag requirements and this might take some investigating beforehand. See the bag pattern insert for more information on choosing good alternatives to plastic bags. Be consistent and charge for alternative bags. Celebrate small successes and keep the campaign in the public eye. This will encourage more traders and the public to come on board and support the campaign.

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11 Supermarkets and high street chains are often the most difficult nuts to crack. Talk to these early on because decisions will often have to be made by head office, which can take time. Ask your branch to be a test case or to trial going Plastic Bag Free. You can ask people to write to the chain requesting that they stop using plastic bags, or organise a give away of free cotton bags outside the store. Ask them to sell or give away your community-designed bag and display leaflets and posters about why the town is going Plastic Bag Free. You could even make your own cotton bags by using the pattern in this pack. Morsbags

12 CASE STUDY Crouch End, London Who are they? The Crouch End Plastic Bag Free campaign was started by Andrew Thornton, the owner of the local Budgens branch. He realised that he was giving away 5,000 carrier bags a day! How the campaign worked Andrew introduced a scheme called Pennies for Plastic where the money saved by not giving away free carrier bags went to local charities. He also provided alternative bags, including the local Crouch End Project cotton bag. A few months later Andrew surveyed his customers and found that the majority would be in favour of an outright ban on plastic bags. This has been implemented successfully and he estimates that it has saved over 2 million carrier bags from being made, used and thrown away. Nine other retailers in the Crouch End Project have also joined him and Plastic for Pennies has now been rolled out to all Budgens stores! An amazing achievement from a small beginning. TOP TIP "By giving away what we saved, we avoided cynicism and also got the community behind us". Hardest part "Getting our team of checkout operators to understand and communicate the message to customers. They are the best people to sell the idea to customers, but it's not as easy to get the idea across to customers as I thought it would be."

13 We ve saved over 2 milllion carrier bags from being made and used in Crouch End. An achievement we re really proud of! Photo: 5,000 carrier bags - the amount that was used every day in the Budgens Crouch End branch. A. Thornton

14 Common concerns Q I use plastic bags for bin liners. What can I use instead? Room or office bins generally do not A need to be lined. If you can home compost, this will take a lot of the messy fraction out of food or kitchen bins. You can then either wrap any food in newspaper or try lining the bin with old newspaper or simply swill out the bin after emptying. If you do need a bag, use cornstarch bags, as these are biodegradable and compostable. Q What is wrong with the plastic Bags for Life? Unfortunately they do not last A for very long and are made of more plastic than a standard plastic bag. A cotton bag will last for years. For more common concerns go to Cornstarch bags can be used instead of plastic bin liners

15 What if a trader does Q not want to be involved? It is important that all traders A come on board to prevent plastic bags appearing in the community and to give a united message to shoppers. Some may be undecided initially but when the momentum of the campaign gets going they will probably not want to be left out. Q Won t we get loads of complaints from customers? Other towns have found A that there were initially a few complaints, but nothing compared to what the traders were expecting and they received far more positive comments. Complaints disappeared altogether within a month. Talk to traders early on to dispel their fears, and get other traders who are on your side to do the same. If a few really refuse to get involved however, do not let it stop you. Hopefully you can educate people to bring their own bags when they go shopping anyway.

16 CASE STUDY Haverfordwest, Pembs K. Lock TOP TIP Believe in what you are doing and stay enthusiastic, use the strengths of different members of the group - and don't say no to help. How the campaign worked Haverfordwest Going Plastic Bag Free group held workshops in all local primary schools on the dangers of plastic litter. Children were then tasked with creating a design for a cloth bag to be produced for each school and the winning design was chosen to be the community bag. The bags are now sold in shops in the town as alternatives to plastic bags. Hardest part Trying to contact the large chain supermarkets and stores. Plans for the future To help the smaller traders have a resource of bags available at reasonable cost, to encourage the traders and community to adopt the town bags and to work with the town council to make Haverfordwest Plastic Bag Free. Feel inspired? Go to the Marine Conservation Society webpage for more help and information on how to make your town Plastic Bag Free.

17 "Coming up with designs for our Community Bag was a great way to get children engaged with the campaign" Photo: Winning bag designs from the primary school children in Haverfordwest. K. Lock

18 Finding funding First approach your local council. Some towns planning to go Plastic Bag Free have received grants from their Council. Councils should realise that this will be a really positive step for the town, boost its image and attract more people and tourists to shop in the town centre. Other groups have asked the traders to contribute a small amount each to cover start up costs such as printing posters and ordering bags. In Modbury traders contributed an initial 50 each. For their input, make sure the traders get lots of publicity and raise their profile in the community.

19 Photo left: The community bag for Gloucester Road, Bristol. R. Matthiessen Launch Day Invite lots of press and celebrate everyone s hard work! Some groups had t-shirts printed, others set up stalls in the street or held a mini-festival. Whatever you choose to do make sure shoppers and residents know something has changed for the better and get lots of positive press coverage. DOWNLOAD For an example of a press release go to our Plastic Bag Free resources section at the Marine Conservation Society website

20 USEFUL LINKS The Marine Conservation Society website - go to the Plastic Bag Free section for online resources and further information. Modbury s plastic bag free campaign with lots of plastic bag and alternatives information. groups.google.com/group/plasticbagfree e Plastic Bag Free forum. CONTACT US: By post Marine Conservation Society Overross House, Ross Par, Rosson-Wye, Herefordshire, HR9 7US By telephone on By on info@mcsuk.org Online at MCS would like to thank Rowan Matthiessen, Gaby Solly, Andrew Thornton, Kate Lock and Rebecca Hosking for their valuable advice and input. MCS Marine Conservation Society MCS President: HRH The Prince of Wales Registered Charity Number (England & Wales): Registered Charity Number (Scotland): SC Company Limited by Guarantee no: VAT No: Registered Office: Unit 3 Wolf Business Park, Alton Road, Ross-on-Wye HR9 5NB This project is supported by: Original puffin illustration by Jonny Mendelsson.