Plastic shopping bags are bad for the environment. The better solution is a shopping bag for life. The problem is that many of us forget them at home and we end up buying another. Eventually we will throw them away and they will take even longer to rot than their plastic cousin.

To solve this problem there is the Carrier Bag Initiative (CBI). When you next remember your shopping bag, fill it with any spare shopping bags that you have, and drop them off at a small shop so that they can be given free for other shoppers. Even the old disposable ones can get used again more than once. This will reduce the amount of new bags being manufactured.

Look for the CBI logo to be sure that the shop is happy to take your spare bags or offer them anyway and spread the word.

Returned bags must be relatively clean. Not surgically clean but free of wet, loose or sticky dirt. Please just give them a wipe if needed.

If you are a shop that wants to participate,print this CBI logo and show it.