Vicar’s Notes – Giving Up Plastic Bags for Lent

One of the most dramatically sensible things that the Rwandan Government has done is to ban Plastic Bags in the whole country. 

Compared to other African countries that I have visited this has had a marked effect on the amount of litter that lines the roads.  It also reduces their dependence on imported products, increases sales of locally produced baskets and reduces the landfill that results when those discarded bags are finally collected for disposal. 

On returning home I heard of a village, Overton, in the north of Hampshire which had declared itself a plastic bag free village and then learned of Modbury a small town in Devon that has done likewise.  In talking this through with people here we feel that this is something that Brockenhurst could explore as well. 

Did you know that a plastic bag takes 500 years to decay in a landfill site and that in the UK we use an average of 167 bags per person every year?  Why not try giving up plastic bags for Lent.

At the present time we are researching alternatives for use instead of plastic.  In the Village we already have the excellent Brock Bag which can be found in some of the village stores.  We hope that we might be able to meet with Retailers in the Village before the start of Lent to discuss this further. 

This is really just a case changing our habits to help look after our world and if enough people get behind this project perhaps we too will become a plastic bag free nation.

For more information about being free of plastic bags you might want to check out these websites:

In May 2007 the town of Modbury in Devon became plastic bag free.

http://www.plasticbagfree.com/

See the BBC Natural World Programme, May 2007 – Message in the Waves http://www.messageinthewaves.com/

Or read the article in the Mail on Sunday, November 2007 – by Rebecca Hosking http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=494758&in_page_id=1770

Or check out recycled bags at

http://www.morsbags.com/