THORNBURY folk are ready to turn a deeper shade of green by giving plastic shopping bags the sack, according to environmental champions.

Campaign group Sustainable Thornbury says a recent survey of shoppers in the town has revealed overwhelming support for action to reduce usage of the ecologically unfriendly carriers.

Out of more than 400 people who responded to the survey, a massive 97 per cent supported reducing the number of bags given out in local shops.

Now the group is urging retailers to respond to public feeling by considering alternatives to giving out plastic bags with every purchase.

Members will be speaking to all the town's retailers in the New Year to give them more information about alternatives and ask them to commit to a reduction.

Sustainable Thornbury spokeswoman Margaret Pinder said the survey was conducted during a recent farmers' market in the town and also at the fireworks spectacular event in the Mundy playing fields.

High Street shoppers were also quizzed during a recent lunchtime.

"Most people were concerned at the environmental damage caused by these bags and many shoppers already carried their own re-usable bags," she said.

"Plastic bags are made from oil which is already in short supply. They damage wildlife which swallow them and they can take hundreds of years to degrade.

"They eventually break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits, contaminating soil, waterways, oceans and entering the food web when ingested by animals.

"On average we use each plastic bag for approximately 12 minutes before disposing of it. It then lasts in the environment for decades."

Almost 50 per cent of wind borne litter escaping from landfills was plastic and much of it was in the form of plastic bags.

Thornbury Chamber of Commerce members had already given their support for the initiative, said Mrs Pinder.

"We're hoping that retailers in the town will take their lead from shoppers who have made their own views very clear," she said.

Surveys have shown the world uses more than 1.2 trillion plastic bags a year - an average of around 300 bags for each adult on the planet or more than one million bags being used every minute.

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