Plastic carrier bags could be consigned to history in one town

A town could end up ditching plastic carrier bags altogether if a pilot scheme gets the go-ahead.

SNP councillor Rosemary Liewald, supported by fellow SNP member Alistair Bain, wants to try a pilot scheme to get retailers to offer compostable carrier bags, rather than their plastic counterparts, to shoppers.

In a motion she is presenting to the Cowdenbeath area committee this week, she wants members to support asking Fife Council to carry out a feasibility study, which would be a three-month trial in Cardenden.

At the end of the pilot the results and opinions of those taking part would be assessed as well as looking at the benefits to the environment.

In a study carried out by the Co-op, the introduction of compostable carrier bags reduced the sale of single-use plastic carriers by 64%.

Around the UK 600 out of 3,000 Co-op stores already use these bags.

Meanwhile, Scotland uses 750 million plastic bags every year.

Ms Liewald’s motion says these are destined for landfill almost as soon as they are created and add to the 2.8 million tonne mound of plastic waste produced in the UK every year.

The plan comes on the back of the fightback against plastic waste by another Fife community.

Aberdour recently became Fife’s first village to go plastic straw-free thanks to the efforts of two environmentally conscious youngsters.

Jamie Allan, five, asked people to avoid single-use plastics and thanks to help from pal Jamie, four, and his mum Sarah Neal, all cafes and pubs and the playgroup ditched the items.

The proposal comes on the back of the plastic pollution highlighted in programmes such as Blue Planet II and information from the United Nations.

It says there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050 unless people stop using single-use plastic items like bags.