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Alderney is gearing up to be the first of the Channel Islands to ban plastic bags, targeting next year as the beginning of the end for single-use carriers.
If the third largest of the Channel Islands gets its way, shoppers will have to use alternatives from January 2021.
Like Jersey and Guernsey, Alderney has signed up to the Blue Islands Charter on the environment, which includes looking at things like reducing waste.
Pictured: John Young (Government of Jersey), Claude Hogan (Environment minister for Montserrat), William Tate (sitting - President of the States of Alderney), Stephanie Martin ( Environment & Conservation Policy Officer for Tristan da Cunha), Deputy Barry Brehaut (States of Guernsey), Liesl Mesilio (HM Gov Gibraltar).
In total, Ministers from seven islands signed up to the charter last year, pledging to the protect and improve their territory's natural environment.
The 10-point agreement included pledges to "control and reduce the negative impacts of the island's activities on the environment; to contribute to the development of scientific knowledge with regard to island marine environments and to move towards a complete ban on single use plastics."
A petition in Jersey calling for a plastic bag ban recently topped 1,000 signatures, just days after the island's Environment Minister, Deputy John Young, said he'd like to ban the importation of plastic bags as soon as possible.
Pictured: Alderney wants to see the back of single-use carrier bags by January 2021.
Similarly, Guernsey's President of the Committee for the Environment and Infrastructure was recently given a petition signed by more than 6,000 people calling for a ban on single-use carrier bags.
However, Alderney has so far come closest to actually banning the bags - something the island would like to achieve within mere months.
The island's representatives have announced intentions to bring a Projet de Loi before the States of Alderney this year, which would ban the sale and distribution of plastic carrier bags from January 2021 if the island's government approves it.
A Working Group consisting of Alderney Chamber of Commerce, Alderney Wildlife Trust, States Member Annie Burgess, States Works and Economic Development has already been looking at a number of initiatives "in order to remove as much plastic from the Island’s supply chain as reasonably possible," with the objective of becoming “a plastic-free island” without the need for legislative changes.
While those moves to introduce a voluntary ban are progressing well, the Working Group says the encouraging feedback it has received suggests an island-wide ban could realistically be enforced.
Pictured: A number of shops across the Channel Islands have made a voluntary switch to more environmentally friendly bags.
The Working Group is now considering how it can educate the public waste management processes, and how it can lobby the supply chain to make changes to reduce the amount of plastic sent to Alderney in the first place.
There are going to be two public home composting talks at the Alderney Wildlife Trust offices next month, on Tuesday 10 March at 18:00 and Saturday 14 March at 10:00.
The Working Group is also hoping to tackle the problem caused by the lack of a covered recycling area in Alderney, which often results in rubbish being blown around the island in high winds.
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