Press Release

Recycle for London launches plastic
bag free day for Londoners 
22-2-2008 

- 10,000 free cotton reusable bags to be handed out on Oxford & Regent Street -

The Mayor of London today (Friday 22nd February) called on Londoners to reuse their plastic bags and say ‘no’ to accepting new plastic bags. On average, Londoners use over 37 million new plastic bags each week – a weekly habit that adds to an annual total of 2.2 billion new plastic bags in the capital. To help Londoners on their way Recycle for London and thelondonpaper this afternoon will be handing out 10,000 free reusable cotton bags on Oxford and Regent Street, London's main shopping locations.

At the campaign launch in Oxford Circus this morning the Deputy Mayor of London, Nicky Gavron, was joined by media partner thelondonpaper to encourage Londoners to use a reusable bag as well as reusing the plastic bags that they already have, instead of putting them in the bin where they will end up on landfill sites - this is a real waste of resources, causes harmful pollution and contributes to climate change.

The Recycle for London campaign encourages Londoners to reduce, reuse and recycle their rubbish. Today’s campaign aims to remind Londoners that creating less rubbish must also be a long-term aim. The majority of the 2.2 billion new plastic bags received by Londoners each year end up in landfill and it is estimated that each bag can take up to 400 years to breakdown. If every Londoner cut out just one in every five of the new plastic bags they receive it would save almost 11,000 tonnes of carbon emissions – the equivalent of taking over 3,375 cars off the road for a year.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: "I am giving my full support to this Recycle for London and thelondonpaper campaign, which will give away 10,000 free reusable cotton bags. Londoners don't have to reduce their quality of life to tackle climate change, but we do need to change our wasteful habits. Using fewer plastic bags and remembering to carry a reusable bag is a great way to brush-up your green credentials.

"It is a shocking fact that Londoners use 2.2 billion plastic bags per year and of these only only one in 200 bags are being recycled. This is a real waste of resources and the needless use of so many plastic bags causes harmful pollution and contributes to climate change.

"It is estimated that most of these plastic bags are used on average for just 12 minutes before being thrown away where they end up in landfill sites and take an estimated 400 years to decompose. If every Londoner cut just one in five of the new plastic bags used in the capital each year, it would help reduce waste and litter, as well as saving almost 11,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year."
 
Speaking at today’s launch Deputy Mayor of London Nicky Gavron said: ‘It is extremely worrying that over 37m plastic bags are used by Londoners each week, the majority of which are not recycled or reused and end up in landfill sites or incinerated when we could be using a reusable bag instead. Today’s campaign is a suitable reminder for Londoners to stand back and look at the amount of rubbish they create on a weekly basis.

‘ I am today calling on all Londoners to continue to help our efforts to tackle climate change and start with a clean sheet. So, if you’re in Oxford Circus pick up a free reusable bag or make a big effort to reuse and recycle the bags you already have at home’.

Jenny Jones, Green Party Member of the London Assembly said: ‘Using reusable shopping bags has to become the acceptable way of shopping. The 2.2 billion plastic shopping bags given out by retailers in the capital each year end up in landfill, incinerated, or floating in the sea as an environmental menace to wildlife. The public clearly wants a ban, and government must act by introducing a national tax similar to the one in Ireland that resulted in a 90 per cent reduction in usage of throwaway plastic bags’.

Stefano Hatfield, editor of thelondonpaper said: ‘The environment is a top priority for thelondonpaper and our readers. We fully support this project, which will help reduce waste in the capital’.

Richard Dickinson, Chief Executive Officer of New West End Company, said, "West End retailers are also very keen to encourage green shopping practices with many of them introducing their own eco bags this year. The Mayor's support will help us all focus on the things we can do, every day, to become greener consumers."