APRIL TRADE NEWS Retailers seeing shifting consumer behaviour More empty shops in Edinburgh's Old Town Culture capital status boosting Liverpool retail Retailers 'need more help from government' Bath retailers to target 'affluent women' Birmingham Wholesale Markets to move Nottingham shops banned from using A-boards Trader convicted for selling fake goods from trusted wholesaler OFT warned on newspaper distribution rules Scottish retail sales picking up Ebay fraudster ordered to repay £100,000 Welsh urged to cut down on single use carriers Wholesalers looking for insight from retailers Rural retail initiative to help traders in N.Ireland Hampshire traders fearful of supermarket plans Retail sales surge during sunny April Wholesalers affected by late payments Online retailers 'must convince shoppers of internet benefits' Strongest monthly UK footfall rise in five years Retailers urged to turn to eBay to-sell stock Retailers fight plans for Watford Tesco Express Local retail opinions mixed in Leicester More than one British newsagent closing a day European visitors to The Wholesaler please click here Trade News Archive 2009  January   February   March   April   May Subscribe to our newsletter   Go to The Wholesaler UK Directory 18th May 2009 Welsh retailers urged to cut down single-use carrier bags Retailers in Wales have been targeted by a new campaign launched to cut down on the number of plastic bags that are thrown away after being used only once. The Welsh Assembly Government's Get Carried Away scheme will promote the reuse of plastic bags, which can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. Retailers in several towns in Wales have already launched campaigns to become totally free from plastic bags, with other stores charging shoppers to use their bags. Get Carried Away aims to encourage both retailers and shoppers to reuse their plastic carrier bags. Announcing the new campaign, environment minister Jane Davidson said that a voluntary agreement among some retailers to reduce the number of single-use carrier bags by 50 per cent is a "good target". "But this does not cover all retailers and still leaves 50 per cent using one-trip plastic bags," she warned. "I recognise we need to give the retail sector a chance to demonstrate what they can do voluntarily, but I am willing to use all the powers at our disposal." Previously, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has suggested that various schemes to cut down on the number of plastic carrier bags will help eventually help save more than five billion bags per year in England, Wales and Ireland. The government department estimated that the positive environmental impact of such a decline would be the same as removing 41,000 cars from the road each year. (c) 2009 Comment on this news story   Trade News Archive 2008  December   November   October   September August   July   June   May   April   March   February   January