MCS
Marine
Conservation
Society
HOW
TO GO
PLASTIC BAG
FREE
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.
Getting started
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.
1
DOWNLOAD
For an example of a questionnaire
go to our Plastic Bag Free resources
section at the Marine Conservation
Society website www.mcsuk.org
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.
2
FACT The Gloucester Road
Alternative Bag
group found that over 90%
of shoppers in their survey
would support a campaign.
Photos right: (top) Bird's carcass full of plastic,
(middle) Albatross chick and (bottom) an Hawaiian
monk seal with beach debris. © R. Hosking/ BBC
Images: Pictures of other
group’s alternative bags?
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!
3
It is important that the campaign looks
professional as this will draw in support
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.
4
For a list of Plastic Bag Free towns
go to www.mcsuk.org
i 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
www.messageinthewaves.com.
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.
www.lovegloucesterroad.org.uk
“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
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.
Put up posters about the
campaign around the
FREE
town and postcards in
participating shops. Feel
free to use the post and
postcard included in this
Please remember
to bring a bag
pack - for more copies
contact the Marine
Conservation Society at [email protected] or
01989 567807. Alternatively why not design
your own poster with a community logo?
WE’VE GONE
PLASTIC BAG
Find out about the problem of
plastic in the sea and how you can
help at www.mcsuk.org
MCS
This plastic bag free initiative is supported by the Marine Conservation Society
Marine
Conservation
Society
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.
© R. Matthiessen
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.
© Morsbags
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.
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."
“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
Common
concerns
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.
Q
For more common concerns go to www.mcsuk.org
Cornstarch bags can be used
instead of plastic bin liners
What if a trader does
not want to be involved?
is important that all traders
A Itcome
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.
Q
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.
CASE STUDY
© K. Lock
Haverfordwest, Pembs
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.
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.
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. www.mcsuk.org
"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
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.
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 www.mcsuk.org
USEFUL LINKS
www.mcsuk.org
The Marine Conservation Society website - go to the
Plastic Bag Free section for online resources and
further information.
MCS
Marine
Conservation
Society
www.plasticbagfree.com
Modbury’s plastic bag free campaign with
lots of plastic bag and alternatives information.
groups.google.com/group/plasticbagfree
Plastic Bag Free forum.
CONTACT US:
•By post
Marine Conservation Society
Overross House, Ross Par, Rosson-Wye, Herefordshire, HR9 7US
•By telephone on 01989 566
017
•By email on [email protected]
•Online at www.mcsuk.org
MCS would like to thank Rowan Matthiessen,
Gaby Solly, Andrew Thornton, Kate Lock and
Rebecca Hosking for their valuable advice and input.
MCS President: HRH The Prince of Wales
Registered Charity Number (England & Wales): 1004005
Registered Charity Number (Scotland): SC037480
Company Limited by Guarantee no: 2550966
VAT No: 489 1505 17
Registered Office: Unit 3 Wolf Business Park, Alton Road, Ross-on-Wye HR9 5NB
© Original puffin illustration by Jonny Mendelsson.
This project is supported by: