New rallying cry to halt use of plastic carrier bags

With the average person in England using 133 carrier bags a year, the Break The Bag Habit coalition has launched a new website to encourage supporters to pledge to stop using them.

The campaign highlights the fact that 10.6 billion single-use bags will be handed out at shops in England before the bag charge comes into force on 1 October 2015.

The new Break The Bag Habit pledge website is supported by the internationally acclaimed photographer Martin Brent with a bespoke series of images entitled “Killer Bags”. These images feature actual single-use plastic bags Brent was confronted with whilst diving.

The Break The Bag Habit coalition is also urging supermarkets to adopt the charge as soon as possible.

Andy Cummins, spokesperson for the Break the Bag Habit campaign, commented: “We call on retailers to listen to their customers and voluntarily introduce the charge in October across their stores. With 7 billion bags being used every annually, there’s certainly no reason to delay it for 18 months.”

Supporters making the pledge to stop accepting single-use bags will learn how many bags they have personally offset and their pledge will be added to a grand total, highlighting the number of bags prevented from entering the environment or waste streams nationally before the bag charge comes into effect.