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Penistone Carry-A-Bag

What did we do?

Penistone Carry-A-Bag was set up in January 2008 by Penistone Friends of the Earth to reduce plastic bag use in Penistone. We worked with nearly 60 local shops, 17 other local groups and hundreds of local people. We were generously funded by many large and small organisations.

We trawled the River Don for plastic, helped school children make bags, had a public meeting at which everyone voted to support the scheme, made extra Penistone bags to sell and promoted the campaign at Penistone Gala. A free Co-op fabric bag and our 'Shop Local and Reduce Plastic Bags' guide was delivered to 6000 households in the Penistone area by 100 volunteers. Our launch day was in July 2008 (see below).

Great survey results!

In August 2008, we repeated the survey we had done in January, counting the types of bags people were carrying in Penistone.

The number of plastic bags being used is now only 40% of what it was in January - that's 1.2 million less plastic bags in Penistone, littering up our area, wasting resources and harming the environment.

The number of people using some kind of re-usable shopping bag has increased by 75%. Well done everyone!

More survey results...

Launch Day

Penistone Carry-A-Bag was launched on 12th July 2008 in Penistone Town Centre. There are now counter top cards and stickers in shops all over the town centre and surrounding villages. Local shops are trying all sorts of ways to reduce plastic bag use - click on the 'Local Shops' in the banner above to see how all the shops are taking part.

There was loads going on, on Launch Day itself. Our turtle was out, the sewing machines were whirring, children were filling in quiz sheets and even Mick Clapham MP came along to lend his support.

More about launch day...

The problem with plastic...

Did you know that plastic bags can last over 500 years? Yet on average, a plastic bag is only used for 12 minutes and only one in 200 is recycled. We have made huge progress in Penistone towards getting rid of plastic bags - keep going!

More about plastic...

Penistone Carry-A-Bag

Can you help protect wildlife, save resources and reduce waste? Just carry your own bag when you shop in Penistone!

Support us

Please fill in our form, and receive occasional emails about this campaign.

Shoppers

Find out about all our great local shops who joined up to Penistone Carry-A-Bag or click on the shop picture ("Local Shops") at the top of the page

Also find out where to buy your own locally made recycled bag, what to do with your old plastic bags and some extra uses for your fabric bag!

Info for shoppers here

Supporters

We now have so many supporters we have written a new Supporters page which you can get to from here or from the lady carrying a bag picture ("Supporters") at the top of the page.

Carry-A-Bag Ltd

We are a local campaign, not linked to Carry-a-bag Ltd which is a company selling fabric bags.

Other towns who have gone 'plastic bag free':

Modbury

Hebden Bridge