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Shame its only for one day, but Sainsbury’s ban plastic bags.

Sainsbury’s is to remove all plastic carrier bags from its checkouts for one day later this month in a bid to cut down on waste.

Instead, the supermarket chain will hand out reusable paper bags made from 100 per cent recycled material to customers across its stores on April 27th.

Usually costing 10p each, Sainsbury’s hopes that giving people its ‘bags for life’ will encourage customers to keep and reuse the bags for future shopping trips.

“Our customers are showing an increasing interest in wanting to be greener or healthier, but tell us they would like more information and help on what they can do and ideas on specific positive steps they can take,” said Sainsbury’s customer director Gwyn Burr.

“That’s why Sainsbury’s is launching ‘make the difference’ days to champion specific issues to help and encourage customers and colleagues to take simple steps and actions to effect real change. Working in partnership is the key. On the first day we will provide the bags for free but need customers to reuse them to really make the difference,” she continued.

“Working together these small and easy changes today can make real and lasting differences for tomorrow.”

Sainsbury’s says that more than 90 million disposable plastic bags could be saved it customers used the more environmentally-friendly equivalent at least 20 times.

And the supermarket expects to hand out seven million of the reusable bags on April 27th alone; a figure it would normally take two years to reach.

“Too many of us rely on free carrier bags when we shop and as a result 13 billion of them are used up every year in the UK, “commented Dr Liz Goodwin, chief executive of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap).

“From our research we know that it’s very difficult for shoppers to adopt greener habits without support, and Sainsbury’s is clearly trying to encourage customers to re-use bags in a very positive way.”

Saw this today from the We are what we do website:

Get Involved: As a Shop
Posted: 2007-04-18

Welcome to the ‘Plastic Ain’t My Bag Campaign’; a cost-shaving, planet-saving initiative brought to you by We Are What We Do, twenty-thousand customers and hundreds of retailers the length and breadth of the country.

Plastic bags blight our cities. They cost money from your hard-won margins. Plus they cost the earth. (It takes approximately two billion barrels of oil to service the plastic bag industry in this country alone.) Over 17 billion plastic bags a year are handed out to British shoppers, most of which are used once and end up in landfill or under the sink*. And the darndest thing is that, often, we’d be happy to forgo them altogether. Talk about money down the khazi.

The Plastic Ain’t My Bag campaign is not about depriving your customer. Nor is it about watching their valiant attempts at juggling while stifling a laugh. No, it’s simply about ‘asking’, ‘Do you need a plastic bag?’, ‘Would you like a bag or do you have one already?’ And maybe the occasional ‘thank you’ when they say, ‘No ta, I’m all set.’ (We warn you, from experience, they may end up thanking you..)

We at We Are What We Do believe that small actions x lots of people = big change. Granted, one customer declining one plastic bag will not change much, and the savings recouped from one declined bag will be nominal. But magnify that by thousands of customers, hundreds of retailers, and millions of plastic bags and you’re looking at substantive change.

We need your help in catalysing change across our nation. It’s easy, guaranteed to save you money and should be the most painless transaction of your day. We’re here to help where we can; sign up to our ‘Shop Wars’ group action tracker, download our retailer toolkit, display the ‘Plastic Ain’t My Bag’ insignia at point-of-sale, ask the question, change the world… Job done.

*The lifespan of the average plastic bag is two weeks. The average time it takes to degrade in landfill is five hundred years.