Arundel bags an eco-friendly carrier campaign

The Arundel Worth the Earth bag was unveiled at the town's farmers' market on Saturday, and as well as stopping plastic carriers going to rubbish tips, it is organic and made from Fairtrade cotton.

"We hope that Arundel Town Council will endorse and support the campaign and that other local businesses and organisations will join in to phase out plastic bags, which take up to 1,000 years to degrade and which break up into ever more harmful elements," said Felicity Jones, of the Arundel Worth the Earth group, which is working for a more sustainable future for the town.

The bag has been printed with vegetable inks by a Sussex-based printer, and designed for free by Arundel graphic artist, Jamie Wood. It shows a flat projection of the globe, with Worth the Earth translated into 21 languages, including Mandarin, Esperanto, Croatian, Polish and Welsh.

Groups supporting the bag include the Arundel Fairtrade Town Group and Arundel Agenda 21, with major backing from businesses Pallant of Arundel, Pappardelle Ristorante Italiano, Arundel Castle, Antiquities and Absolutely Organics, as well as other shops and organisations in the town. All of them are selling the bag, for 3.

The inspiration for the bag came from a screening in the Arundel Castle restaurant of the film Hawai'i '” Message in the Waves, about the impact of plastic pollution in the ocean around the paradise island. The film also prompted Modbury, in Devon, to become the first plastic-bag free town in the UK.

As the Gazette reported last year, Arundel already has "Lola" bags, produced from recycled fabrics by another Worth the Earth member, Ruth McCorquadale and named after the friendly dog in Tarrant Street grocer's shop Larkin's, where they are sold.

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