THE WAR against plastic bags in Marlow continues next weekend, with a supermarket giant offering free reusable bags to help fight the scourge of disposable carriers.

Sainsbury’s has teamed up with Marlow Town Council to give away reusable ‘Bags for Life’ to all its customers on Saturday and Sunday next week.

The campaign to reduce the number of plastic bags in use around Marlow is part of the council’s ten-year ‘vision’ for improving the town.

And the latest drive follows an initiative with Waitrose last year, which saw over 8000 of the reusable carrier bags handed out to customers.

Cllr Jocelyn Towns, who masterminded the scheme, said: “The damage plastic bags do is horrendous. We are trying to limit them in Marlow as much as possible by offering these bags for life.

“Last time, I was really impressed by how many people came to the shops with bags for life and recycle because it is important to them. The number of people already prepared is brilliant.

“It changed by attitude and now I always have them with me in my car and my handbag.

“If more people take on that awareness it helps towards building what we want to do, and that is everyone in Marlow using an alternative to plastic.”

During last year’s drive to ditch the plastic, Marks and Spencer also agreed to hand out Bags for Life to the first 100 customers during the promotional weekend.

As part of Sainsbury’s giveaway next week, town council members and officers will be on hand to help shoppers who want to leave any unwanted packaging in the store for recycling.

Sainsbury’s will also recycle any unwanted disposable bags.

Where sold, Sainsbury’s donates a percentage of the sale of Bags for Life towards charity, with the Marlow store choosing Marlow Age Concern as this year’s beneficiary.

Around 17 billion disposable bags are given out in the UK every year, with the plastic taking nearly 400 years to degrade naturally. They can damage wildlife and clog landfill sites.

Councillors say large numbers of discarded plastics bags are found during litter picks around the town, particularly in Higginson Park.