States will be asked to bin bags if shops don’t

By Nick Mann

GUERNSEY could be plastic bag free within the next year.

Environment minister David De Lisle is putting his weight behind phasing out their use.

And Checkers owner Sandpiper wants to talk to the other supermarkets to make sure they agree to do so in unison.

Discussions about the issue have already taken place in Jersey.

‘If I had my way we would try and phase them out over the next 12 months, that’s the bottom line,’ said Deputy De Lisle.

‘The fact is that we have a real problem with them because they are strewn everywhere, around the landfill site and so on. The impact on the environment is the essential point.’

He said the States had skirted around the issue.

People had to get into the habit of taking their own bags when they shop, added Deputy De Lisle.

‘Jersey is suggesting bringing in a charge, that is one of the ways forward definitely, but I think it’s skirting around the edges again,’ he said.

‘I think in some ways we have to make the point that if the shops don’t take the initiative themselves in the next year than perhaps the government should act.’

Deputy De Lisle said that if re-elected he would take the earliest opportunity to take the proposal for a ban to the House.

One chance would be when the waste strategy was debated again.

Sandpiper’s Glen Rankine was keen for the major supermarkets in Guernsey to get around the table to discuss the way forward in a similar way to what has happened in Jersey.

In its CI stores, 15 million plastic bags are used annually.