London’s council leaders have agreed to go ahead with a Bill that will seek to ban the distribution of free, throw-away shopping bags in the capital.
The decision follows a London-wide consultation organised by London Councils on its proposals to introduce either a levy or a ban on throw-away shopping bags in the capital. Over 90% of people responding to the consultation called for action on shopping bags; nearly 60% felt strongly enough to call for an outright ban.
Re-use a Bag in Kingston comment: "We welcome the results of this consultation and look forward to a complete ban on plastic bags. However we do wonder how long it will take to implement, and would love to see Kingston retailers taking steps to get ahead of the ban - if we could save a year or two's worth of throw-away bags from ending up as litter or land-fill in Kingston that would be worth doing."
(Reported in The Independent, 17/11/07)