Traders support green shopping

8:32am Monday 16th June 2008

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Independent shop owners in Barnards Green, near Worcester, have gone green by getting together to sell reusable jute shopping bags.

Traders were contacted by Blu Genic, a Young Enterprise company from The Chase school in Malvern, which has been at the forefront of the growing movement against plastic bags.

The jute bags are being sold at £2.50 each at Barnards Green Butcher's, Barnards Green Hardware, Barnards Green Post Office, the Cold Chef, the Cheeseboard, Elite Service Centre, Just So, Natural Choice and the Toy Corner.

They have the slogan Barnards Green Shopper.

Andrew Brooks, of the Cheeseboard, said: "We are a close trading community and felt this was a good way to acknowledge our customers' wishes to become more environmentally-friendly. We could have had the bags printed in the Far East and shipped over, as the national chains do, but that seemed to rather defeat our green objective so we had them printed locally and paid a little more."

Jane Knowles, of Just So, said: "This seemed a brilliant way for all the traders to get together and do something positive."

Chris Avery, of Barnards Green Hardware, said: "Customers are not being used to advertise one particular shop but are supporting the whole local trading community."

The campaign to make Malvern a plastic bag-free town has been gathering pace with pressure group Plastic Bags - No Thanks co-ordinating the effort.