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Oxfordshire County Council has joined forces with Wantage & District Chamber of Commerce in a bid to make the town plastic bag free.

Businesses in the town are pledging to stop dishing out plastic bags and encourage their customer to use a reuseable bag instead.

The people of the town are being asked to design a logo for a reusable bag to be launched in time for the Christmas shopping season.

Waste of resources
Daniel Dempsey, Oxfordshire County Council's Commercial Waste Reduction Officer, said:
"Scientists believe it can take anything from 100-1,000 years for a plastic bag to biodegrade.

"People seem to be in the habit of accumulating several plastic bags on each shopping trip. This is an incredible waste of the precious resources needed to produce a bag, including oil. It is well documented that the Republic of Ireland recently took a much tougher stance on plastic bags and this has resulted in less waste produced.

"A plastic bag free Wantage is a great idea and one that the county council was happy to be involved with. Shoppers will be able to use the bag from December - making their Christmas shopping a little bit more environmentally friendly."

Litter on the streets
Matthew Chapman, Chairman of the Wantage Chamber of Commerce, added:
"We exist to promote and support local businesses. One of our aims for 2007/08 is to rid Wantage of plastic bags in order to reduce some of the plastic bags that end up as litter on our streets each year.

"We are very proud of our historic town and the surrounding villages so we will be encouraging all businesses to adopt the Wantage eco bag. With their support, and that of local schools and community groups, we will be able to promote Wantage at a national level while reducing unsightly waste and the use of landfill sites."