Shops and business in Clare will be showing their support for St Edmundsbury’s Zero Waste Week initiative by dropping plastic bags in favour of more environmentally friendly alternatives.
During Zero Waste Week, which runs from 10 to 17 March, businesses based in the town will only give out compostable paper bags or cotton bags to customers. The local traders have signed up to go ‘plastic bag free’ as part of the council’s challenge to everyone in the borough to reduce the waste they throw into their black bins to nothing. During the week, it’s hoped that people will only use products which can be recycled, composted or reused, avoiding things which can only go to landfill.
Cllr Peter Stevens, Cabinet member with responsibility for the environment at St Edmundsbury Borough Council, said:
“Residents in the St Edmundsbury area use around 17 million plastics bags every year and only one in every 200 is reused. While plastic bags cannot be put into the blue bin, they can be recycled at many supermarkets.
“But the initiative which local traders in Clare are spearheading is even better for the environment and will hopefully show people that using cotton or compostable bags is a simple change which can make a big difference. I am delighted that the shops in Clare have got behind this initiative, making the town the first in East Anglia to go plastic bag free.”
Ends
Issued by Liz Hearnshaw, Communications Unit, St Edmundsbury Borough Council. Phone: 01284 757033 Email: liz.hearnshaw@stedsbc.gov.uk
