Our Mission:

Dear Modbury Resident,

We, the traders and shopkeepers of Modbury, wish to invite you to help us make Modbury become the first town in the British Isles to be plastic shopping bag free.

From May 1st 2007 Modbury will officially become the first town in the British Isles to stop issuing plastic shopping bags when goods are purchased. Every trader has joined together in this venture, and from the 1st onwards there will not be a single plastic shopping bag available in the entire town of Modbury.

(To give ourselves a run up, we are trialling this campaign from Friday 28th April ).

As you will all be aware Modbury is the last trading town before you reach some of the most beautiful beaches in South Devon. In making this transition we hope you will join us and, together, we can actively demonstrate our responsibility and commitment towards our local environment.

In an attempt to reduce household waste we are encouraging all Modbury shoppers to bring their own shopping bags, or alternatively buy a reusable and environmentally friendly carrier bag offered in many of our shops.

To make this transition easier for you, the Plymouth and South West Co-operative (our local Supermarket) have very kindly donated a Fairtrade reusable cotton carrier bag to every household in Modbury. Please accept this with the Co-ops warmest wishes.

For those of you who forget to bring a bag with you there will also be two disposable alternatives on sale, a 100% biodegradable cornstarch carrier bag (which the South Hams District Council has cleared as being green waste and completely compostable) and several styles of recyclable paper carrier bags. However, to encourage you to switch to reusable carrier bags there will be a small charge placed on these disposable bags.

We feel passionate about making a real contribution towards preserving the South Hams environment and can assure you all that this initiative is just the start of a number of campaigns to work towards improving and caring for our natural surroundings. We hope you will support us and join in.

Very best wishes,

The Traders of Modbury.


A few facts about plastic bags:
A person uses a plastic carrier bag on average for only 12 minutes.

A plastic bag can take between 500 to 1000 years to break down in the environment.

In the UK at least 200 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks ever year.

When a plastic bag enters the ocean it becomes a harmful piece of litter. Many marine animals mistake plastic bags for food and swallow them, with painful and often fatal consequences.

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