What can I do?

It's really easy! Just remember to take a bag or two when you go out shopping. Put one in your coat pocket, keep a few in the car or leave them by the door to pick up on your way out. It takes a while to get into the habit, but soon it will be as natural as remembering to take your money with you.

Show your support for the scheme by filling in our Shopper's Form and pledging to cut your use of plastic bags. If everyone in Penistone halved the number of plastic bags they use there would be a million less plastic bags needed.

Interested in finding out more? Come to our public meeting.

Will bags still be available in the shops?

Yes, if you forget your bag, the shops will still be able to provide one. We are looking into alternatives to plastic bags with the traders, such as home compostable ones made of cornstarch. Some traders will continue re-using supermarket bags.

Other tips for reducing plastic waste:

• When you are shopping, choose things with less packaging
• Re-use small plastic bags such as bread bags for sandwich bags or freezer bags instead of buying them
• Take small bags to put your fruit and veg in when out shopping instead of taking new bags off the roll, or put your produce loose in your basket.
• Buy bars of soap instead of bottles

Send us your own ideas and tips and see them featured on this website.

FAQs

Coming soon here, answers to your 'frequently asked questions'... but at the moment, we don't know what your questions are!

So please send them to us and we will try to get some answers - they might be to do with this project, how it will work, how to get by without plastic or about plastic in general...or anything else related to Penistone Carry-A-Bag.

Shopping bag stories

When we started chatting to people, we heard some interesting stories about people's shopping bags...

Long service bag

We met Betty Elders in Penistone Country Market. She is pictured above with her shopping bag, which currently holds the long-service record (so far at least - can you beat it?). It was her mother's, and she died 16 years ago - and it's still going strong!

Bag to the rescue!

A person who wishes to remain nameless recently used the ladies toilets in Penistone, only to find the door completely jammed when she wanted to get out! Rather than an embarrassing shout for help, she pulled out her trusty canvas bag, looped it round the handle and a big pull got her free! Would a plastic carrier have got her out of trouble...?

Have you got a tale to tell? Contact us to have your story featured.