By Rich Airey
A West Sussex village has become the second community in the country to declare itself plastic bag-free. Traders in Henfield, including the local Budgens store, have followed the lead of Modbury in Devon and will no longer provide shoppers with plastic carrier bags.
Every household has instead been issued with a free reuseable cotton bag, which can also be purchased from retailers for 65p. Stronger canvas bags are also available for £1.75 and a number of retailers are offering paper bags for a small charge which will be passed on to local charities.
Kim Mustafa, owner of Budgens Henfield, told Convenience Store: "It's been my manager Nick Green's pet project and all the staff and now the customers have got behind it. As well as the obvious environmental benefits it's good that any money raised will be going to local charities.
"We've only had one customer out of hundreds so far who didn't want to pay for a paper bag."
Stokes Newsagent owner Linda Stokes added: "I'm hoping this will lead to bigger things and a greater awareness of plastic in our environment. I hope manufacturers will also cotton on to the fact that customers do not want everything to be over-packaged in plastic.
"There's been a lot of chatter about this so most of our customers were aware it was going on. Henfield is a very caring community and people value their environment."
A West Sussex village has become the second community in the country to declare itself plastic bag-free. Traders in Henfield, including the local Budgens store, have followed the lead of Modbury in Devon and will no longer provide shoppers with plastic carrier bags.
Every household has instead been issued with a free reuseable cotton bag, which can also be purchased from retailers for 65p. Stronger canvas bags are also available for £1.75 and a number of retailers are offering paper bags for a small charge which will be passed on to local charities.
Kim Mustafa, owner of Budgens Henfield, told Convenience Store: "It's been my manager Nick Green's pet project and all the staff and now the customers have got behind it. As well as the obvious environmental benefits it's good that any money raised will be going to local charities.
"We've only had one customer out of hundreds so far who didn't want to pay for a paper bag."
Stokes Newsagent owner Linda Stokes added: "I'm hoping this will lead to bigger things and a greater awareness of plastic in our environment. I hope manufacturers will also cotton on to the fact that customers do not want everything to be over-packaged in plastic.
"There's been a lot of chatter about this so most of our customers were aware it was going on. Henfield is a very caring community and people value their environment."
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