“Plastic Pollution Coalition is a new campaign calling for an outright ban on single-use plastic products. Will you support them?”

This is a question posed by the Ecologist in an interesting article. The Coalition want to take the ban much futher than plastic bags pointing out that there are far too many ‘disposable’ plastic items that end up in the environment causing havoc to nature.

To support this Coalition, visit their site and take the S.U.P.E.R. Hero pledge as a Single-Use Plastic Emergency Response.

National Plastic Bag Day was sunny, warm and great fun, and we would like to thank the following (in no particular order!) for their contribution to the success
The Morsbaggers of Blue Haze
Hazel of Blue Haze
Phil for his table
Justine (madame Mayor!) for her continued support and tireless work giving away bags
Bobbie for the heavy lifting
All the shops that gave us Tombola prizes (Waitrose, Starbucks, Oxfam, Lucia’s, Healthright and Sainbury’s)
Everyone who had a go on the tombola (sorry you didn’t win again Sian!!)
Everyone who stopped and talked to us on the stall or whilst ‘bagging’ in the market
Everyone who carries their cotton bags and refuses to use plastic, we love you!

This coming Saturday, September 12th, is National Plastic Bag Free Day, with over 50 events happening across the country.

We are having a stall in Market Square, with a tombola, our lovely bags for sale and lots of fun and games.

We will also be distributing the hard work of the Blue Haze Sweat Shop, over 100 free Morspod bags for everyone to use.

So pop down and say hello and make sure you, your friends and your family don’t use any plastic bags at all for this one special day!

Plastic Bag Free has just gone international!

With so many countries having banned single use plastic bags it is a great pity that the UK is still not one of them. None the less, the British shopper has cut down on use a tremendous amount so the message is getting out there.

There will always be the old die-hards of this ‘disposable’ generation who see convenience as another form of progress and accuse us of trying to live in the dark ages. But our shoulders have become pretty broad over the past couple of years:>)

So, what started as an idea we had in Julia’s living room during one PBFC meeting was mooted to the wider PBF community and took off. Several groups signed up to supporting a UK PBF day. But then the international community got wind of it and wanted to spread the field wider.

So write it in your diary: 12th September, 2009.

We are planning an event in town that day but there is a lot of work to do before hand. We need all our supporters to write to the big chains and supermarkets asking them to support the day and use it as a lever towards become totally PBF free. We will be getting information out to you all shortly.

Please support this campaign and help us persuade  Briatain to become a plastic bag free nation.

It was good to meet and talk with everyone at Elgiva this week. Hope you all enjoyed the films and many thanks to those who stocked up on Plastic Bag Free Chesham bags :>)

There will be another MorsBag Pod at Blue Haze Arts and Crafts,  2 Church Street, Market Square on Saturday 25th October from 1.30 to 4.30 to make more free cloth bags to hand out at the Victorian Evening.

Volunteers are required for cutting out and ironing before the event, which anyone can have a go at doing, and if any of you know your way around a sewing machine, then you could get involved on the day. Also if you have any old quilt covers, curtains or other material that you would like to donate, then you can be involved that way.

Either way please contact Hazel at Blue Haze beforehand by popping into the shop or emailing her on info@blue-haze.co.uk

For more information about Morsbags go to www.morsbags.com

Happy morsbagging!

It was great to see so many people at our free film showing of ‘Message in the Waves’ last night, there must’ve been nearly 60 of us!

We hope you enjoyed the evening and thank you for your comments and questions after the film, we want there to be lots of healthy discussion and a sharing of ideas about achieving our aims.

We are aware that many questions didn’t get fully answered last night and so will be adding a summary to our website of what CarryAbag has done so far; what we are planning now/ideas for the future; and how people can get involved. Please do get in touch if you have any thoughts or further questions…we WANT to hear from you!

Finally…a big thank you to Vicki and Sarah for doing the refreshments, Angie for looking after bag sales, Bobbie and Mark for doorman duties, and to Chesham Town Council for generously giving us the space and technology :>)

Look forward to seeing you again soon…

Julia and Donna will be leafleting the town this Saturday. We will be handing out flyers for the film Hawai’i: Message in the Waves which will be shown at the Town Hall on Wednesday, 13th February.

Do come and see us and support the film on Wednesday. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and light refreshments will be available. The film scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. The CarryAbag team will all be available afterwards for a panel discussion so please come along and let us know what you think.

Just a reminder that the CarryAbag team will be joining in the festive fun at the Victorian Evening on Friday! Our stall will be set up near to Millets and will have for sale our fab fairtrade, recycled cotton CarryAbag…

So come and talk to us, buy a bag and spread the word!

Hello Folks…

Thanks to the endless patience of my CarryAbag buddies, I have now caught up with the previously elusive world of blogging!

And I would like to use my debut Blog to thank the Shopkeepers whom I have so far visited for your enthusiasm and support for a plastic bag free Chesham! It’s been great to meet you all, hear your views and discuss ideas of how we can achieve our goal.

Alison and I were in town talking to Shopkeepers this afternoon and found shops we didn’t even know existed! Over the next few weeks we hope to visit many more shops… so see you soon :-)