There’s a lot of things that Boris wants to get rid of in London. Cars, congestion, the 50p tax rate and FIFA officials, to name but four. Now, though, the Mayor is on a crusade to eliminate another poisonous scourge of our society.
Carrier bags.
The Daily Mail reports that Bozza’s team has already held talks with council leaders and the London Waste and Recycling Board to work out the best way to reduce plastic bag numbers. The plan is to ban free plastic bags along the lines of a scheme soon to be launched in Wales.
“Plastics bags are an unnecessary scourge on our environment and I’ve set out my ambition to make London a plastic bag free city,” said the Mayor.
“We are planning a renewed campaign to help do so ahead of 2012, when the eyes of the world are on us.
“Whilst London doesn’t have the powers to implement bans or charges, I am keenly following Wales’s efforts to solve this problem.”
In 2007, Boris began his crusade against the humble Asda bag which is used ‘for about 20 minutes’. “The bag is then discarded and takes about 400 years to biodegrade, and the result is that we are slowly sprinkling the planet with the crinkly detritus of our consumption.”
Experts estimate that the move would cut the number of bags by a staggering 90 per cent. What we’d use in the waste paper bins in Boriswatch HQ is as yet unconfirmed…