Re-using your Plastic Carrier Bags
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle towards zero waste.
By making small changes to our everyday behaviour, we can help reduce waste and lessen the impact we have on the environment.
The Scottish Government's 10 steps aim to encourage everyone to contribute to a Greener Scotland, one of them is to reuse our carrier bags when we go shopping.
It's estimated Scotland uses over a billion carriers per year. Reducing this number will inevitably be much better for the environment.
Most of us know there's a good reason for reusing bags, it's just sometimes we forget to take them when we go shopping.
There are lots of ways to help you remember to take bags with you. Keep one in your handbag or car for unplanned shopping trips, put your bags next to your shopping list or keep them by the front door so you see them just before you leave the house.
Fiona Lawrenson, 65, from Falkland in Fife, has already been making an effort to re-use her carrier bags. She said: "It's just a matter of getting into the habit. I usually always take my own bags with me when I go to the supermarket and now that I'm in the habit, it's like second nature. "It's easier to forget to take a bag if you're just popping out to the local shop for milk or something but if I don't remember a bag, I just do without as it's usually only a couple of items."
The Scottish Government has now teamed up with retailers across the country in a bid to half the number of carrier bags we use by Spring 2009.
Fiona Moriarty, Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said:
"Working with their customers, retailers have already delivered some spectacular reductions in the numbers of new bags handed out - down by a quarter in just two years.
"Ideas including taking bags off display and reducing the amount of new plastic in bags are part of that but so is encouraging customers to change their behaviour. That's why stores are offering durable bags for life, tips and incentives and working with the Government to get more customers re-using bags.
"This campaign is a positive example of the Scottish Government and retail businesses working together to achieve the environmental gains we all want."
Remember to reuse your carrier bags. For some handy hints and more information, visit www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk/bags or www.infoscotland.com/gogreener
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