I first realised the environmental impact of plastic bags a few years ago while on holiday in the Lake District. A beautiful swan was on the water desperately trying to swallow a plastic bag. Onlookers were horrified and a group rallied with sticks and branches to try and hook it away.Fortunately it worked but it did change the way I viewed disposable bags from then on.

If we were witness to all the horrors resulting from discarded plastic waste I'm absolutely sure that as a nation of animal lovers we would have been quicker to grab our cloth bags on the way to the shops! The problem I think is that so much of the damage is going unnoticed.

A very big threat is to marine life where sailors at sea report plastic bags as the most common man-made item seen and the turtles love them, they think they are jellyfish and starve to death as their stomachs fill with plastic leaving no room for food. Many other sea animals and birds suffer the same fate and because it takes longer for the plastic bag to break down than the animal's body, the bag is often available to be ingested again by another animal - a bit like a serial killer!

In fact, the Ecologist reports that there is an area of floating plastic in one part of the ocean that is the size of France!

The natural environment is not the only concern Urban problems are enormous too. In 1988 and 1998, Bangladesh suffered serious floods and the authorities identified plastic bags as being a contributing factor as they clogged up the drainage system. As a result plastic bags were banned there in 2002. I wonder if anyone has looked into our summer floods and come up with similar evidence!

If we want our children to understand the importance of preserving resources, limiting pollution, saving energy, and generally being responsible guardians of the planet, then saying NO to plastic bags is an excellent first step.

Isn't it time we stopped sleepwalking through life and had a good look at what we are doing? It IS mind-numbing having to do a food shop for 5 and stand in a queue listening to hypnotic muzak and trying to keep tabs on 3 kids - I've been there and it isn't fun! But if we look around, and I mean really look at the thousands of bags being robotically filled by all the shoppers and then visualise the same scene in every shop in every town in every country, doesn't it seem so obviously wrong?

Warrington has over 40 major supermarkets and the number of shops in Golden Square has risen from 80 to over 145.

Imagine if we could see all these companies reduce their bag use by simply taking along our own!

Imagine the environmental impact of Warrington saying NO to plastic bags!

Imagine what we could achieve next!!!