An Oban shop takes an important first step

Hello again

In the run-up to our next public meeting on Friday, January 23, 2009 (Glencruitten Church Hall, Oban, 7 (for 7:15) to approx. 9pm), we would like to highlight an example of an excellent intermediate step taken by one of Oban's prestigious shops:

Ms Ch. Bremner of House and Home was approached with an idea and decided to act on it. This is what she has done: on the counter, her customers can find a donation box and the following notice, reproduced here with Ms Bremner's permission:

Alexander Kilmurray P4,
Eco Committe, Park School
has requested that we should be charging for
Carrier Bags to save Wildlife and the planet.
To comply with this request and encourage the use of
Traditional Shopping Bags and the reuse of Carrier Bags
All Carrier Bags will now incur a charge of 10p each.
All money raised from this will be donated to local charities.
This month's [January 2009] is:
Mary's Meals and Scottish International Relief.
Last month £75.00 was donated to
Oban Christmas Lights Appeal.

Ms Bremner assured your blogger that every month between about £50 and up to £100 have been donated to a local charity.
What a fantastic way of increasing awareness!
Thank you and congratulations, Alexander Kilmurray and Cherren Bremner!

Plasticbag.org.uk - Sustainable Oban Meeting: Jan 23, 2009

Hello again

This is a quick reminder that the
next Sustainable Oban meeting at the Glencruitten Church Hall, Oban

Friday, 23 January, 2009, 7 to approx. 9pm

will include an update on our Initiative to get Oban Plastic Bag Free!

Everyone's most welcome!


Finally, your blogger browsed the web in search of facts on the production of plastic bags.

Plasticbag.org.uk -- "the campaign to reduce the effects of plastic bags on our world" -- is a website that may well be worth your visit.

Cheerioh!

Hello again

Searching for facts and figures on the consumption of energy to produce plastic bags, your blogger has come across a fascinating article by Lucy Siegle in The Observer, Sunday 29 January 2006. Its title is

One family, one month, 50kg of packaging. Why?

Well worth your visit -- simply click on the title to be taken to the full article.

Cheerioh!

Oban Plastic Bag Free! on Oban FM radio

Oban Plastic Bag Free! is happy to acknowledge being given some excellent airtime on Oban FM radio this Sunday, December 14, 2008, from about 10:30 to 11AM. News editor Coll MacDougall invited Oban Plastic Bag Free! co-facilitator, Margaret Powell-Joss, along to chat with Councillor Roddy McCuish and Adam Hughes, President of the Oban Allotments Association, a sister organisation under the Sustainable Oban umbrella.

In the course of the radio chat, we highlighted the negative consequences of plastic degraded into microparticles that then attract toxins which mimic human hormones -- contributing towards reducing human fertility. We also addressed the issue of plastic pellets and microparticles being ingested by marine organisms and animals -- fish, mammals, birds, whose intestines are filled with plastic rather than food.
For more on this subject, view the video on the Marine Conservation Society website.

Councillor Roddy McCuish expressed his wholehearted endorsement of the Oban Plastic Bag Free! Initiative, asking each and every consumer to re-use bags and to stay away from non-biodegradable plastic. We appreciate his suppport and can only join him in his appeal.

Thank you, Oban FM, for providing this platform -- we will be back on ObanFM after our next meeting on January 23, 2008. More about that in our next post.

Winner of the Oban Plastic Bag Free! Poster Competition

The GRAB Trust project worker for Oban, Lorn and the Isles ran a poster competition to help with the Oban Plastic Bag Free Initiative. It was open to all Primary schools in this area. Nine schools participated in three categories – p1-3, P4-5, P6-7 – for a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize in each category.
The Judges were David Lyon from Quarriers Rooftops Project, Michael Harvey (Shanks) and Elizabeth Mullen (Lorn & Oban Reuse Initiative = LORI)

The Prizes were:
1st Prize: handcrafted wooden pen made by The Employability Team, GRAB Jute Bag and GRAB Pencil made from recycled CD cases
2nd prize: a voucher to use in Orsay, GRAB Jute Bag and GRAB pencil
3rd prize: GRAB Jute Bag and GRAB Pencil.

The Winners were as follows (see photos at the end of this post):
P1-3 category
1st = Eilidh Munro (Barcaldine PS)
2nd = Shona McKenzie (Barcaldine)
3rd = Katie MacCorquardale (Barcaldine)

P4-5 Category
1st = Saffron Carmichael (Salen PS)
2nd Scott Paterson (Salen)
3rd Ben Collins (Barcaldine)

P6-7 Category
1st = Amy Greenwood (Barcaldine PS)
2nd = Charlotte Collins (Barcaldine)
3rd = George Needham (Achaleven PS)

The overall winner was Amy Greenwood, whose poster will be used to highlight the initiative in the windows of shops who are supporting the initiative.
Congratulations, Amy!
Prizewinners of Oban Plastic Bag Free Poster Competition: from back L to R: George Needham Achaleven PS, Amy Greenwood (Barcaldine and overall winner, Charlotte Collins (Barcaldine), Ben Collins (Barcaldine), Front row, Shona McKenzie (Barcaldine), Katie MacCorquardale (Barcaldine) and Eilidh Munro (Barcaldine). Photo © Julie Fairbrass, GRAB Trust, Nov. 2008

SAMS Endorsement of the Oban Plastic Bag Free! Initiative

We are happy and proud to publish two endorsement messages from the Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory of SAMS, The Scottish Association for Marine Science.

They came in on October 31, 2008, and are published here with permission:

The message from Prof. Laurence Mee, the Director of SAMS, reads as follows:

"You are entirely right that free plastic bags are a bane of modern society and are causing untold environmental damage. It is amazing that the example of Ireland to charge for plastic bags has not been followed in the UK.
I am pleased to see that supermarkets in Oban offer alternatives but we need to go one step further and charge for the plastic ones!
I fully support your campaign and trust that my colleagues will do the same.
Laurence"


The message from the SAMS Activities Manager & Lecturer in Marine Life Sciences, Dr Anuschka Miller, reads:

"further to Laurence's email, a petition about your cause is currently making its way around the staff at SAMS, finding many supporters.
I moved to the UK from Germany some 17 years ago when free plastic bags started to disappear there. It has always perplexed me how slow the UK – which has otherwise become my home of choice – is in adopting even the simplest and most obvious solutions to environmental problems.
These relatively small gestures can make a huge difference to people's behaviour across many activities and I wish you and us all every success with your initiative!
Anuschka"

Oban victim of the plastic bag scourge

Hello again

Today's victim of the plastic-bag scourge -- a young seagull at Oban harbour:

© Photo: Margaret Powell-Joss, Oct 11, 2008© Photo: Margaret Powell-Joss, Oct 11, 2008

What should anyone tossing away any kind of rubbish, but plastic bags in general, be made to do?

Another youngster had one of its legs caught in a snare of fishing line or fishnet. MPJ wasn't quick enough on the uptake to get her camera out (having her fingers greasy with fish & chips didn't help).