Early this week I was asked if I had any objection to the  Banchory bags Campaign being used as the basis of a dissertation by a Masters student from The Robert Gordon University.  Of course, I was delighted and met with the student’s tutor to give her some background on the campaign [pointing her to this blog, of course] and suggested some questions I would like included in the survey.

 The student has been in Banchory this week interviewing shoppers with a questionnaire about the campaign and whether it has changed their shopping habits.  The initial responses look to be positive, and shoppers were happy to be stopped and questioned. 

This survey will be treated as a ‘Pilot Study’ and a more extensive study will, hopefully, be undertaken by another student next year.

It will be very interesting for campaign members to know the results of the survey once the information has been collated.

The Aberdeenshire Environmental Forum has awarded the Banchory bags Campaign the ‘Green Butterfly Award’, which was presented at an awards ceremony on November 20 by BBC radio presenter, Mark Stephen.

The award was presented to Karen Clark, Paul Herrington and myself on behalf of the campaign, but I feel very strongly that it is a recognitition of the commitment and effort that the whole of the Banchory community have put into changing their habits.  The shoppers and traders have really embraced the idea of using reusable shopping bags and the award is an affirmation of that support.

We had a very successful ‘Follow-Up’ to our Campaign in early November.  

A very rough survey of the shops which had given away the most plastic bags showed a remarkable decline in the numbers of bags being given away.  Somerfield, for instance, told us that they had reduced the number of bags they ordered by 80%.  It was very heartening.

We still decided to target Somerfield for our ‘Follow-up’, together with McColls, WH Smith and the Co-op on the High Street, and the Waste Aware team also came to Somerfield with their big bus to talk to residents about waste and to reinforce our message.

We had over 600 ‘Cleaner, Greener, Banchory’ bags to give away and a team of 8 volunteers managed to do this in just a couple of hours.  Many shoppers were already carrying their own reusable bags, but those who didn’t have any welcomed the Banchory bags with open arms.  The volunteers really noticed a difference in the attitude of shoppers.

Yesterday afternoon I had been invited by the Provost of Aberdeenshire Council and his fellow Councillors to a reception to thank 39 volunteers who had been chosen from various towns and villages around Aberdeenshire for the work they had done for their communities.

I had wondered what the reception would be like, but it was truly a very delightful and worthwhile afternoon and I felt very honoured to be included.

I was ‘phoned by Tesco yesterday and asked if I would be happy if two of their representatives came to meet me to discuss the policy they should adopt regarding single-use plastic carrier bags if, and when, the proposed new Tesco store opens in Banchory.

WATCH THIS SPACE.

That is the headline on the second page of The Deeside Piper this week.

The article goes on to say that

Somerfield, in North Deeside Road, Banchory, is backing the Banchory bags Campaign [BbC] to rid the town of plastic bags, and it seems shoppers are already taking heed.

Somerfield Manager, Sean Carty, said:  “In the first eight weeks of the new financial year, we’ve re-ordered one-third of the amount of carriers we ordered last year.

This could be down to the Banchory bags Campaign to a certain degree and also because people are becoming more aware of green issues in general

The Manager then describes the scheme they have introduced of giving anyone who brings in five plastic bags for recycling is given a free Bag for Life.  [I know that it is not perfect but obviously it has helped cut the number of plastic carrier bags given out.]

The article continues

He [the Manager] said Somerfield’s till operators were asked to promote the Bag for Life and customers re-using their own bags.

The article then goes on to say that BbC will be having a ‘Follow-Up’ Campaign towards the end of the year and that we have been invited into Somerfield to chat to customers and give away our Banchory Bags, stickers and bookmarks.  It also mentions that the Council’s Waste Aware bus has been invited to promote recycling and green initiatives on the same day.  It concludes:-

Mr. Carty said: ” I don’t know what other traders are saying, but the campaign seems to be a success from the point of view that I’m ordering less carrier bags”.

YES!!!

I was in Sainsbury’s the other day and was given bonus points for every reusable bag of my own that I used.  Excellent!

This article has been brought to my attention.  Good news.

Supermarkets have been told they must slash the number of plastic carrier bags they give to customers by 70 per cent by next spring.

The Government has warned stores that a failure to do so voluntarily will trigger a change in the law to put an end to the distribution of free throwaway bags, dubbed ‘plastic poison’.

Firms would be required to charge for the bags – with money going to environmentally friendly good causes – in a drive to encourage customers to switch to reusable alternatives.

Having sent all our sponsors and people who helped the campaign bags, I was thrilled to get a ‘thank you’ from one of them yesterday which said:-

“[the bags] are splendid and your campaign deserves congratulations for producing such a clever bag.

“No more fiddling about with an elastic band for me from now on:  the cunning little press-stud keeps my new bag tightly and neatly closed until it is required!”

I was talking with the Manager of our local Somerfield yesterday and he told me that in the first 8 weeks of this financial year their order for single-use plastic carrier bags was down by two-thirds [2/3rds!] on the same period last year, and this is before they carry-out their planned campaign to get people to use their Bags for Life.  He is thrilled and I and the BbC team are thrilled [or, at least, I know they will be when I get a chance to tell them].

When I told the Manager that I would like to run a Follow-Up Campaign on November 8 concentrating mainly on Somerfield, he invited the BbC team into the store and said he was happy for us to stand at the counters chatting to customers about the campaign and giving away our ‘Cleaner, Greener, Banchory’ bags & ‘BAGS’ stickers to anyone who did not have their own bags.  He is also happy to have the Aberdeenshire Council Waste Aware bus parked in the car park for the day.  I’m not sure if he has ever seen it.  It is huge and always attracts a large audience.  The Waste Aware team have been very helpful in the past, so it would be great if they could be with us.

Unfortunately, I have found that the re-fitted Co-op [which looks good] is not carrying out the procedures that Head Office outlined to me, but I am hopeful that this will change in the near future.