People love to shop in Modbury, Devon, but since the 1st of May 2007, no one has been carrying a plastic bag. The 43 shopkeepers and traders have banished plastic bags for the environment.

I used to work for a shopkeeper selling Australian toys at the Fremantle markets. While working there I witnessed an addiction. An addiction to plastic bags. Even though customers could easily hold the fluffy stuffed koala bear they had just purchased in their hands or purchase a cloth bag for an extra $1, many often demanded a plastic bag (sometimes even two!). Many of us fail to realise that we only use each plastic bag for an average of 12 minutes before discarding it (it then lasts in the environment for up to 1000 years).

So when I first heard about the town Modbury going plastic bag free, I was amazed. How did they do it? How can we do it?

The mastermind behind this major initiative, Rebecca Hosking, says ‘Sadly, there is no quick fix….there can be no blueprint because every town is different. Every town has different traders, different needs and different attitudes’.

Hosking does offer us some good guidelines as to how we can do the same in our community.

1. Do your homework

You need to learn all about the impact plastic bags are having on the environment and how they are affecting us (i.e. entering into our food chain). You can find out more by clicking here. You also need to research every type of environmental bag on the market. Rebecca suggests we ask the following questions:

• Are they fair trade?
• What materials are they made from?
• Where and how are those materials sourced?
• Are they sustainable?

People will be forced to take you seriously if you know your facts well and can answer their questions.

2. Change attitudes – Approach traders directly

By having a good foundation of knowledge, you can then start to change the attitudes of people in your community. You want to start with the traders (the ones you already know) and get their trust. Rebecca invited all the traders to a film night which showed a film she made on the effect plastic bags are having on the Pacific Ocean. After the screening, she provided traders with the names of wholesalers with environmental bag alternatives.

3. Set a date

Once you have the support of all the traders in your community, you set a date for a complete changeover. Rebecca set a date just one month away and made it official by creating a chamber of trader letter, a gentlemen’s agreement that stated no more plastic bags were to be issued.

4. Hold weekly meeting leading up to the changeover

Weekly meetings can help to resolve key issues (i.e what to charge for the reusable and compostable bag alternatives). It also helps to have a simple mission in mind to help these meetings run smoothly (For Modbury the mission was to help the environment, not to make a profit).

Recently I went back to the market place I used to work at and I saw a sign that things may be starting to change there. ‘Do something drastic…Cut the plastic! Help make Fremantle a plastic bag free city!’ it said. Modbury shows us that this is possible, Fremantle and all other communities can become plastic bag free. All it takes is the willingness to get out there and make it happen.