Bag the chance to help the environment
Mansfield District Council is to become one of the first authorities in the country to launch its own 'bag for life' scheme in a bid to banish environmentally-damaging plastic carrier bags.
The Council will be launching a new 'eco-bag' next month as part of a new buy local initiative aimed at boosting the local economy and protecting the environment.
The cotton bags, which will cost £1 each, will be sold on a not-for-profit basis with the Council subsidising the full production costs.
And to ensure that the bags are truly unique to Mansfield, local children are being given the chance to design the image that will appear on them. What's more the child who produces the winning design will 'bag' a Nintendo Wii, courtesy of the Four Season Shopping Centre.
The competition is open to anyone aged under-16 who lives or goes to school in the Mansfield district. The designs can be full colour and should contain words, drawings or images relating to the environment, to Mansfield or to the shop local initiative on a plain white paper.
The winning design will appear on a print area measuring 30cms deep by 26 cms wide. Hard copy entries can be handed in at the Chad Reception in Mansfield Market Place, at Mansfield Civic Centre reception or at the Customer Services desk in the Four Seasons Shopping Centre. E-mail copies can be sent to competitions@chad.co.uk or sent to Mansfield Shopping bag competition, Chad Newspapers, Promotions Department, 121 Newgate Lane, Mansfield Notts NG18 2PA.
The closing date for entries is 28th April 2008.
Coun Kate Allsop, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration at Mansfield District Council said: "Locally, nationally and internationally people are becoming much more environmentally aware and more of us are 'doing our bit' to protect the environment.
"With a tax on plastic carrier bags just around the corner and some businesses already taking a lead in banning them from their stores we wanted to make sure that Mansfield was amongst the first places to have a community-led, environmentally-friendly alternative in place.
"Through this and other 'shop local' initiatives we'll be announcing soon, we hope that there will also be a positive spin-off for the local economy."
Some Plastic bag facts:-
- The average shopper uses 342 plastic bags every year and is responsible for 25.14kg of CO2 emissions.
- A shopper using a single reusable cotton bag each year is responsible for just 0.62kg CO2 emissions.
- 13 billion plastic bags are given away by retailers in the UK each year. If this was cut by 25% it would be the equivalent to taking 18,000 cars off the road.