A Plastic Bag-Free Christmas

'We Are What We Do' Launches New Campaign

“Every person in the country uses an average of 167 plastic bags every year. That's 10 billion bags all together. A plastic bag takes up to 500 years to decay in landfill.  There is an alternative.  It’s called a shopping bag.”
From Change the World for a Fiver

We Are What We Do, the global social change movement behind the best selling book Change the World for a Fiver and the recent Anya Hindmarch I’m Not A Plastic Bag project, is launching its latest initiative – a campaign called Plastic Ain’t My Bag.

The campaign, which will build on the heightened awareness achieved by the Anya Hindmarch collaboration, will enable shops and shoppers all around the country to play their part in bringing about an end to the wasteful use of plastic shopping bags and all forms of excessive packaging.

Both the bag and the related campaign are inspired by Action 1 – Decline Plastic Bags from Change the World for a Fiver. 

David Robinson, founder of We Are What We Do said:  “The success of “I’m not a plastic bag” bodes really well for our campaign and we think it is a great opportunity for retailers and shoppers to demonstrate that we really do care about the damage we are doing to the environment as a result of some of our simplest every day actions.”

How to get involved

Retailers: Indicate to shoppers that you will not automatically give them a plastic bag for their shopping (i.e. you will ask if they need one instead of automatically giving them one).

Retailers can also sign up to We Are What We Do’s on-line ‘Shop Wars’ competition – a “tracker” which will enable you to provide details of how many bags you believe your shop / shops are saving and compete head to head with other retailers.  The winner will be the retailer which saves the greatest number of bags in a month and they will be promoted on our website. 

The following retailers have already signed up to the campaign and are already proudly sporting window vinyls and other materials to show they are on board: Virgin Megastores (nationally), Foyles Bookshop, Konditor & Cook, Mish Mash, Queen’s Park Books, Wenlock Books in Shropshire, Lambs Conduit Street: Kennards Good Foods, Something, French’s Dairy, Folk; 2,000 Dermalogica salons around the country, Melrose & Morgan in Primrose Hill and Camden Lock market.

Shoppers: You can support the campaign by always remembering to take a carrier bag(s) with you when you’re shopping, saying “no” when offered bags (of any kind) unless carrying your goods is highly impractical or deeply embarrassing, supporting those shops that have signed up to our campaign or which have demonstrated a commitment to reducing bags and other forms of packaging and spreading the word about our campaign to shops in your local area.

David Robinson said: “There is no doubt that the range of initiatives, of which ours is just one, are making a significant impact on the issue of plastic bag usage. Sainsbury’s trialling “no bag days”, Waitrose introducing “green tills” for people who have their own bags, paper bags in Primark, Superdrug asking customers if they really need a bag - something that has already brought about a 20% reduction in their bag usage -Tesco taking full page ads in the national press to promote their policies, an entire town in Devon giving up plastic bags and Virgin Megastore’s nationally leading the charge in our new campaign.  None of these things in and of themselves will result in an end to plastic bag usage, but each makes a significant contribution.

“Our aim with Plastic Ain’t My Bag is to have a window vinyl in every window in every shop in every high street in the country by Christmas, and for this to be the first Christmas that it is about as fashionable to carry plastic as it is to wear fur.”

To find out more or to order your Plastic Ain’t My Bag materials, please visit www.wearewhatwedo.org.

Change The World From 9 to 5

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