GLOUCESTERSHIRE residents are being urged to play their part in making the county a plastic bag free zone.

Gloucestershire County Council is taking a tough stance on plastic bags and would like to see a ban on the handing out of free plastic bags in the county.

The county council has already voted for a boycott on plastic bags and wants communities across the county to follow suit.

County Councillor Stan Waddington, chairman of Gloucestershire's Waste Partnership, wants to get the county's main retailers around a table in an attempt to thrash out a solution to the plastic bags problem.

Cllr Waddington, who environment watchdog is made up of the county's seven local authorities, said: "I appreciate that there is much good will' by businesses and consumers to reduce waste, but we have to translate this into hard actions that will make a difference.

"With this in mind, I am writing to all of the larger retailers in Gloucestershire to explore ways of working in partnership to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill.

"Marks and Spencer has announced it's going to charge 5p for every plastic bag given out by its food stores after trialing the idea in Gloucestershire.

"Our intention is to make Gloucestershire a plastic bag free zone and the more closely we can work together to promote the reduce, reuse, recycle message the better our chance of achieving this."

Every year, 13 billion plastic bags are used in the UK - most of which end up at landfill sites. Each bag takes between 400 and 1,000 years to break down in the environment.

The Gloucestershire Environment Partnership, made up of the county council and a mix of key strategic bodies, is looking into legislation and other ways of discouraging plastic bag use.

Cllr Julie Girling, the council's lead cabinet member for the environment, said: "We all have a part to play in this and if we all stop using plastic bags wherever possible, it will make a huge difference.

"We understand that there may be some occasions when you have to use plastic bags but if we begin by trying to reduce the numbers we use it's a start. And who knows what we can achieve in time?

"Gloucestershire County Council has made a commitment to dealing with the issue of plastic bags and I would urge everyone to do their bit for their local community by joining us."