Greening Grayshott joined in with the first international Plastic Bag Free day on the 12th September. The day illustrated how we can all reduce our reliance on plastic and leave the carrier bags at the check out and many towns and villages across the UK and the world took a stand against unnecessary plastic packaging and waste.

Members of Greening Grayshott, part of the Greening Campaign, mounted a display in The Square of an average person's usage of bags in one month (24). If every household in Grayshott used this amount we would, as one village, have used nearly 25 million bags over our lifetime.

Greening Grayshott are keen to encourage shoppers to bring their own bags when shopping. Kaighin & Daughter, Phyllis Tuckwell, The Post Office & the Co-op all sell varieties of shopping bags & it was very encouraging to see so many local shoppers were already following this ethos, with around 90% of shoppers having brought their own bag with them. A spokeman for the Co-op said they had noted a marked reduction in the number of plastic bags given out on Saturday, many shoppers willingly carrying items in their arms if they had not brought a bag with them.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) was proud to support Plastic Bag Free day, which encouraged shoppers everywhere to ditch plastic bags for good, and to take reusable bags with them instead.

Dr Sue Kinsey, MCS Pollution Programme Manager said, 'We need as many people as possible to take part to make the day a success and show that one of the most preventable forms of plastic litter can easily be stopped. Plastic bags are a menace to marine wildlife and blight our landscape. Groups as far afield as Canada and Hawaii are taking part and making this a truly international day!'

See the following website for more information about plastic bags and the problems caused: http://www.plasticbagfree.com/howto.php