Following on from the launch of the Crouch End Shopping Bag (non-plastic, non-temporary), my latest article for a local publication is about plastic shopping bags:

You may have heard about the village of Modbury where the use of plastic bags has been eradicated. This village’s 43 traders, spurred by the need to tackle the environmental mess we have got ourselves into, all decided to do away with a real scourge of the environment – plastic bags. They have converted to corn starch paper, cotton or cloth – all sorts – but not plastic.

Now, Crouch End – with Budgens leading the charge – is on its way to doing a Modbury. Budgens has got a group of traders together to first cut use of plastic bags and is campaigning and on the path to then one day eradicate plastic bags. As well as encouraging shoppers to purchase a ‘bag for life’ (which is a special non-plastic bag) Budgens launched a Pennies for Plastic Appeal earlier this year in a bid to change customers’ shopping habits and cut the use of plastic bags. For every bag a customer reuses, the shop donates one penny towards building a theatre stage for a local school.

You can read the rest of the article on my website.