Campaign for plastic-bag free Chelmsford launched

11.23.00am GMT Fri 22nd Feb 2008

Chelmsford Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign for Chelmsford to become plastic bag free. Cllr. Christine Rycroft called on Chelmsford Borough Council to support the campaign at the Council Meeting on Wednesday 20th February.

Speaking at the launch, Chelmsford Parliamentary Candidate Stephen Robinson commented 'The average person in the UK uses 300 plastic bags a year, meaning that billions of bags end up in landfill each year. If these bags end up in the sea, they cause untold damage to marine wildlife. Given that each bag is only used for an average of 12 minutes yet they take up to 1,000 years to bio-degrade, we must be doing more to encourage people to use alternatives, as we cannot keep contributing these levels of plastic waste each year'.

Plastic bags have already been banned in many African and Asian countries (including China), where they are considered to help cause flooding by blocking up drains. There are alternatives such as Corn Starch bags, which although not as cheap do last much longer, which we should be using instead.

Please demonstrate your support for our proposals by signing our petition here: http://www.cmld.org.uk/petitions/8/sign-new.html