I'm going to share a deep, dark secret. I've never reused those plastic bags they give you at the supermarket. Ever. Even though I have those trendy reusable bags and hundreds of plastic ones hidden around the house (and stuffed in drawers). I know, I know. It's just that when I finally make it to Tesco, the bags never make it with me.
So I've taken a pledge for Recycle Week (22- 28 June). I've PROMISED to reuse my carrier bags for a whole week. And if I don't do it, I will not be allowed to use Twitter for a whole week. Shudder.
Go on, take your own pledge. It's easy. Just go to the Recycle Week web site. There are lots of pledges to choose from: like promising to recycle all your glass bottles and jars or newspapers and magazines, to using leftovers for lunch the next day to going waste free for an entire day.
It's a fun site, once you pick your pledge it will tell you more about the benefits of what you've promised. For example, after I pledged to re-use my carrier bags, the web site nicely told me:
Did you know?
In 2008, UK shoppers picked up a staggering 9.9 billion new carrier bags.
That’s an average of 400 per household - or enough to fill 188 Olympic swimming pools.
To produce that number of bags required around 180,000 tonnes of oil, and emitted greenhouse gases equivalent to up to 100,000 extra cars on the road.
If you and every household halved the number of bags that are picked up, we would reduce waste and save energy. Over a year, this would mean using around 90,000 fewer tonnes of oil and a reduction in greenhouse gas production equivalent to taking up to 50,000 cars off the road.
And for the bags you can't re-use, see our how to recycle carrier bags page to find out more.
Thanks
Jane
and the Recycle Week team
Well Jane, I think you have done a fab job on this campaign.
Please wish me luck re-using my carrier bags and check back here during Recycle Week for my progress!
And don't forget to make your own pledge and waste less.
