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Camden New Journal - Letters to the Editor
Published: 29 November 2007

Take action now to cut out the wasteful use of plastic bags

• IT is a worrying statistic that each week Londoners and visitors to our capital use more than 37 million new plastic bags.
More worrying is that these plastic bags are used on average for just 12 minutes before being thrown away, where it then takes an estimated 400 years for them to decompose. Many of you are probably aware of the recent debate on introducing a ban on the distribution of free, throw-away shopping bags in the capital.
I support this move, but Camden residents can take action now to help London cut out the wasteful use of plastic bags. This is as easy as bringing a reusable bag with us each time we go on shopping trips and refusing a plastic one.
We have been successful in increasing London’s overall recycling rates from just over one twentieth to just over one fifth. However, this still means that four fifths of our waste is getting dumped in the ground or incinerated, causing harmful pollution.
Each year, Londoners use over two billion new plastic bags – if each of us cuts just one in five of these out, it would help reduce waste and litter, as well as saving almost 11,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year. This is a reasonable trade-off that highlights how simple changes can make a difference to our environment and in the fight against climate change.
KEN LIVINGSTONE
Mayor of London

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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