The Battle of the Bags

Welcome to Modbury, England, population 1500.

It's a quiet town in the Devon hills not far from the sea. There are three churches, three pubs, a market and absolutely no plastic bags.

That's right. This small village carries the distinction of the first town in the British Isles to ban plastic bags.

The story began when local filmmaker Rebecca Hosking witnessed the environmental devastation caused by thousands of bags while filming on Hawaii's Midway Island. There, animals often mistook the bags for food.

Hosking made a documentary for BBC and showed it to the town's merchants. One night at a pub over a few lagers, she suggested to some retailers the idea of a ban. Word spread and within a month, the merchants met. By show of hands, they voted to ban the bags.

Given, Modbury doesn't have a huge environmental footprint to begin with. But, the town's impact has been huge.

Modbury took its message to anyone who would listen. It made international headlines, won an award from the World Wildlife Fund and hosted delegations from cities looking to implement their own bans.

"We are nothing special," says a statement on the town's website after being inundated with messages. "We just got out there and made it happen in the hope that you would do the same in your communities."

Modbury's ban, and a few others, was one of the first blows in the battle of the bags. But outside these centres, the bags still seem to have the upper hand.

Of the estimated 500 billion bags consumed each year worldwide, millions will turn into litter.

Despite environmental concerns, people continue to choose plastic and many governments are reluctant to implement their own bans. Sure, the philosophy of reduce, reuse and recycle will lessen the problem. But, when a simple switch from plastic to canvas could potentially solve it, maybe it's time to go further than the three R's.

Since the 1970s, plastic bags have been a staple around the world. Plastic recycling programs have grown, but the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only 5.2 percent bags in municipal waste systems are actually recycled.

The result is an increase in the "urban tumbleweed" population as carelessly discarded bags are left to blow through city streets.

Plastic bags do have their advantages. They are convenient, cost-effective and incredibly strong - each one can carry about 1000 times its own weight in goods.

But, alternatives are far from the holy grail of environmentalism. In Modbury, residents have simply switched to cloth bags for groceries. The town estimates each one saves 1000 plastic bags. The stores also carry biodegradable, cornstarch-based bags for a charge.

"My personal view is that the disposable plastic bag is the icon of our unsustainable lifestyles," writes Hosking. "I know that removing plastic bags from our lives won't make us a sustainable culture anymore than saving the polar bear will stop global warming. However, plastic bags and polar bears will make us all stop and think about the bigger picture."

Modbury isn't alone in banning plastic bags. Developing countries like Rwanda and Kenya have already banned them. So have large cities like San Francisco.

In Ireland, a 33-cent tax on plastic bags implemented in 2002 led to a 94 percent reduction within weeks. Six years later, cloth is still winning the battle.

The main question that comes to mind is, if all these places are doing it, why can't we?

Far from being just the little town that could, Modbury should be a big influence to all of us.

In the next phase of the battle of the bags, when you're asked paper or plastic, the best answer is canvas.