I started campaigning about plastic bags at the end of 2000, so it’s now 7 years on and we’re not winning yet. How much longer do we need?

Ireland’s had a tax on plastic bags for 6 years now; plastic bag use has gone right down but the roadsides, hills, valleys, bogs and beaches are still covered with litter, like our roads 96% of which in our lifetimes will never break down.

So a plastic bag tax is not going to solve all our problems.

Everyone I speak to – and that’s thousands of people – knows something’s wrong and we feel worse because we don’t know what to do. Or maybe we just haven’t got round to doing it.

Talks are underway with media leaders, government leaders [elected and permanent staff] environment agencies from grassroots to global, and people of all ages.

The media are not doing anything near enough in this crisis.

Let’s stop talking bad news, what’s going wrong and can’t be fixed
Let’s start making good news about things people are doing
All over this country
All over the world

Send your news to Baglady, and join the team!

‘I always feel better if I’m doing something’
Ian Cohen, Member of the Legislative Assembly, New South Wales, Australia

We had a great day on Saturday! A huge thanks to everyone who came along, and all of you who were unable to attend and sent us messages of support. We had them all on display on our message wall.

There will be a full update in a few days, but in the meantime you can see just a few of our photos here.

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Baglady was interviewed by Scott Williams on Dublin’s Q102 on Friday, talking about the anniversary of NEEDabag?, how she got started, and why our politicians need to listen, especially to our kids.

Over to Roy:

What a copout the Environment Ministers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have inflicted on the environments they suppose to represent.
They have agreed to give the shops and supermarkets in the UK two years to reduce plastic carrier bag consumption by a pathetic 25%, and they are pleased with themselves!

For a Government who has got the will to go to war on terrorism, costing billions of pounds and hundreds of lives, they don’t have the bottle to follow the Irish government’s lead and slap a tax on all plastic carrier bags. They couldn’t even follow the Australian lead and make it a target of 50% reduction.

As Bag-ladies and Bag-lords I hope we can achieve this in our own towns in this time, without the budgets and resources the governments throw at surveys and organisations.

Just to remind ourselves: in March 2002, a 15 euro-cent (10p) levy was placed on plastic carrier bags in Ireland. To avoid paying this levy, people took their own bags when shopping.

As a result, plastic bag usage plummeted by 90% – a reduction of approximately 1.1 billion plastic bags.

Local environment minister Ben Bradshaw said:

This is an ambitious but very practical agreement and we are pleased that the retailers have agreed to work with us and UK consumers in such a positive way.
Consumers are increasingly aware that they can make positive choices to help the environment in the way they shop. By signing up to this statement, the UK’s retailers have also committed to help their customers to reduce, reuse and recycle their carrier bags.

If achieved, the 25% reduction target could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 58,500 tonnes a year – equivalent to taking 18,000 cars off the road for a year. It is another example of the simple practical measures that can be taken to help tackle climate change.

Going by their figures, if they followed the Australians we could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 117000 tonnes (equal to 36000 cars off the road), and if they followed the Irish we could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 210600 tonnes, which equates to taking 64800 cars off the road per year.

The 25% doesn’t look so good now, Mr Bradshaw.

If you’d like to have fun (it is!) and say NO to plastic bags in your area, get in touch.

We have 2 Irish Bagladies: Shirley Lewis (61) and Aimee Brett (age 7, who was 3 when this picture was taken at Dunclug Nursery School), and a Dutch former Baglady, Evelien Boskma.

We have new Bagladies in Swansea and Barnsley, and a Baglord in Newton Abbot (click pic for big).

Update: Baglord-and-lady are featured in Devon press!:

It’s very small place somewhere between Enniskillen and Omagh. But the spirit in this place about saying NO to plastic bags, children pestering adults to say NO, schools and shops leading the way in caring for our environment is HUGE.

Here are some of the pictures we took on the sunny day when Trillick welcomed Baglady. There are more pictures, and more stories to come.

Bernie and Malachy, who own the Costcutter store in Trillick, pioneered Positive Pester Power in their village.

Watch this space for further news and how the story spreads to other Costcutter stores, and other communities.

More pictures from Trillick.

Saturday, March 31 2007, 10am-2pm at St George’s Markets, Belfast. Sponsored by Belfast City Council.

To be opened by award winning international storyteller Liz Weir (pictured right).

• Shop sustainably for fresh, organic and local food with local stall-holders
• Bring your own bags and containers! and save packaging
• Visit our good bad and middling bags exhibition
• See film of people saying NO to plastic bags all over the North
• Hear and tell stories about plastic bags with Liz Weir and other storytellers
• See OUR CELEBS’ (like Jenny Bristow, left, at a previous NEEDabag? event) shopping bags and baskets etc – watch this space for more info

Update:

We got an email from Mike recently. He told us how easy and fun it was to put this together:

I didn’t tell you – it was so easy to workshop. The kids got the idea straight away – I sang them the chorus and they sang it right back. Then the same with the verses.

Writing new words took about ten minutes. We had three groups of 6 children, each with 1-2 adults. Kids did all the words, adults just sort of helped shape them.

Telling you all this to encourage you to get other people to do something similar…

Click “Read the rest…” to see the lyrics.

Don’t Need A Bag
Mike Reid

I don’t need a bag (x3)
(Because I got my own)
I don’t need a bag (x3)
(Because I brought one from home)

When me n’ my Mum go shopping Down Town
To get me a new pair of shoes
The shop assistant goes, ‘You want a bag?’
And I tell her my good news.. (I say)

(chorus as above)

When we go along to Tesco on a Saturday
To get our weekly shop
The check-out person goes to offer us some bags
And that’s when we say, stop!

(chorus as above)
We don’t need a bag (x3)
(It’s a waste, you should ban it)
I don’t need a bag (x3)
(We’re trying to Save The Planet)

© Mike Reid 2006, 2007
_______________________________________________________
Extra verses from Sheffield Woodcraft Folk:

When we go down to Toys R’ Us
The toys are in polystyrene.
We only want the remote control car
You can keep the rest, you know what I mean.

When me and my gerbil go to B&Q
To get a new toilet seat,
The shop assistant goes,’ You want a bag,’
And we shout there’s no need

When I go down to Threshers with the whole Crookes Crew,
To get some booze and fags
The shop assistant says, ‘You’re not 18,’
And we say ‘But we’ve got our own bags!’

Click on the image to download the sheet music, and sing the song yourself, and send it to us!

The public asked their questions here, and the results of the question & answer session can be seen here.

How’s YOUR nearest TESCO doing on plastic bags?

Are staff offering green points when you show your re-usable bag/s?

Do you notice a lot more people using reusable bags?

What do you think of the level of packaging these days, in a) Tesco b) other shops you visit?

3 years ago, Tesco in Lisnagelvin, Derry claimed to recycle EVERYthing. Do you agree?

TELL US here!

Hiya Shirley and team,

All supermarkets should purchase jute or other environmentally friendly bags to sell quite cheaply, saying I DID NOT USE ANY CARRIER BAGS FROM and the supermarket name added so they are still advertising but doing something to cut out the use of carrier bags.

Thanks, Julie from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan

We think this is a great idea. One of the team has just returned from Manchester, where grocers and delicatessens like Unicorn and the award-winning Barbakan sell great, inexpensive shopping bags made out of ecologically responsible materials. We would love to see the big supermarkets doing this. What do you think? Leave a comment and let us know. Got any good ideas yourself?