Bye Bye to Plastic Bags?

Those Anya Hindmarch "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" carriers, which caused endless queues in cities like Hong Kong and Singapore earlier this year would come in handy if you're traveling to London or Paris in the near future.

Taking a cue from San Francisco, which officially became plastic bag-free early this year, both cities are looking to ban plastic bags totally. Paris' move will take effect this year and is set to extend to the entire country in two years.

London, meanwhile, is expecting the chief executives of its 33 councils to push for the ban. And if the bag ban is supported by the Parliament, the capital city could effectively rid itself of plastic bags within 18 months.

Residents are backing up the ban too; a poll conducted over the last two months found that more than 90 per cent of respondents supported the ban or a tax of up to 15 pence for each bag given out.

Bad bags!

According to the London Councils:

- 13 billion plastic bags are handed out to shoppers annually in the capital city.

- Only 1 in 200 are recycled, which means billions are sent to landfill sites where they take up to 400 years to break down.

- Cutting a quarter of bags handed out can eliminate up to 58,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide - the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the road!