Jempson’s

Go-Green Campaign – ‘Get a Bag Habit’

In 2008, UK shoppers took 9.9 billion new carrier bags – that is 400 per household so the government has launched a ‘Get a Bag Habit’ campaign, which is aimed at encouraging and reminding us all to re-use and take bags with us whenever we visit the shops, and to persuade more people to regularly use cloth, jute or extra-strong bags instead of the throw-away carriers.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009 warned retailers to take action on the issue or the government would force them to charge shoppers for their bags.

Here at Jempson’s we have already addressed this major environmental issue, and phased out all use of disposable carrier bags across our stores from April 2008, and have saved an estimated 3 million plastic bags in just our Peasmarsh superstore alone!

Our ‘Go Green’ campaign is in full effect, and we offer customers the opportunity to either purchase our durable long life re-useable bags for 10p or high quality Jempson’s jute bags for £1.00. Empty cardboard boxes are also readily available within our stores and are absolutely free.

Under our new policy of recycling all cardboard and re-using cardboard boxes as opposed to carrier bags, just at Peasmarsh we have stopped 75 tonnes going to landfill in the last 12 months, and with all stores combined circa 150 tonnes!

You can find full details of the ‘Get a Bag Habit’ campaign by clicking on this link to the website –

http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/home/what-you-can-do/Out-shopping/get-a-bag-habit.html

We have an on-going commitment to this and our Go Green campaign; it is an ethical issue as well as our social responsibility and together we can make a difference.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please send them to gogreen@jempsons.com