SunCorp

Councillors in Brighton and Hove took the first steps towards ridding the city of plastic bags this week. Ben Parsons reports on how shopkeepers can work towards this ambitious goal. They last for a thousand years, there are 300 of them for every man and woman on the planet and we use them for an average of just 12 minutes.

Plastic bags are an ever-present part of British life - always visible, whether at the supermarket checkout or cluttering the streets as litter.

But the love affair is coming to an end. Brighton and Hove City Council is taking the first steps towards becoming a plastic bag-free city.

Councillors voted unanimously on Thursday to support moves to eliminate the bags from the shops.

Councillor Maria Caulfield put forward the motion. She told The Argus: "We want retailers to provide an alternative so plastic bags can be eliminated once and for all."

Coun Caulfield praised the Republic of Ireland for its bag tax, which requires customers to pay a 20p charge if they want to use a plastic bag.

The country has seen a 90 per cent reduction in plastic bag use since it introduced the fee in 2002.

At the moment, Brighton and Hove City Council is looking at ways of persuading stores to abandon plastic bags voluntarily.

While smaller towns around the country have outright bans in place, no city has yet gone so far.

Modbury in Devon became the first town in Europe to go plastic bag-free in May this year.

Simon Wilkinson, of Modbury Chamber of Commerce, helped spearhead the move.

The butcher has had enquiries from the King of Tonga and a visit from the Colombian ambassador to find out more about the ban.

People in Modbury adapted quickly to the policy.

Mr Wilkinson said: "It was pretty easy. We used to go through 30,000 plastic bags a year in our one shop.

"This year we'll probably have used just 3,000 or 4,000."

Modbury had the support of its only national chain store, the Co-op, in its decision to go plastic bag-free.

Co-op spokeswoman Sandra Everett told The Argus the chain had since introduced voluntary bans in six more stores across the South West.

She said: "It has been fantastic.

We have had a 90 per cent reduction in carrier bags."

The store helped ease the transition by sending out free cotton bags to every house in the town with a leaflet about how the ban would work.

Now customers either take their own bags to the shop or can buy bags made from corn starch, which decay naturally when thrown away, for 5p each. Giving away a free corn starch bag would have cost the store £20,000 a year, nearly ten times more than the old plastic bags.

About 100,000 birds, turtles, seals and whales are believed to die each year after eating plastic bags but the "bio-bag" can be eaten safely by larger animals.

The chain is looking at even greener materials, including potato starch, for future bags.

Modbury, which has 43 shops, is a very different proposition to a city the size of Brighton and Hove, which hands out an estimated 3.5 million bags each year. But moves are already under way to bring the problem under control and work towards a plastic bagfree city.

The council is organising a plastic bag-free day early next year.

The city's sustainability commission, led by Councillor Denise Cobb, is working with small traders to persuade them to voluntarily stop handing out plastic bags.

The council is to begin talks with major chain stores and supermarkets to cut the number of bags being handed out. This week, shopkeepers in North Laine unveiled their new reusable cotton bags, which cost £2.50.

On one side they bear the logo of North Laine Traders' Association.

The other is blank so shops can customise them and retain one of the few advantages of plastic carrier bags - their use as a marketing tool.

There are now about 3,000 cotton bags in circulation among 148 shops in North Laine.

Association chairman Peter Stocker said: "The feeling is that now is the time for change."