WOULD you absent-mindedly pick up those extra carrier bags at the shops if doing so hit you in the pocket?

At Pulse in Curtis Street the staff think not, and are encouraging people to sign up to a national campaign that could levy a 10p charge on every bag.

People in Britain use an average of 300 plastic bags every year, and each bag will last up to 400 years.

The vast majority of the bags will spend most of that time in a landfill site or strewn across the countryside, so staff at the health food shop want people to take their own bags.

Pulse Co-operative member Cath Dolling, said: "We don't actually offer anything other than recycled plastic bags from other stores, but we want to support the campaign to encourage shoppers to take their own bags with them.

"Our customers are involved and bring us in bags to give out.

"We also offer long-life bags, which can be purchased for reuse.

"These days, it isn't easy to get out of a shop without a bag. We don't believe in that."

And the campaign has successful precedents from across the Irish Sea.

In Ireland a tax of 15 cents (about 10p) per bag resulted in a 90 per cent drop in plastic bag usage.

The 3.5m euros (£2.3m) raised from that tax was spent on environmental projects.

Bangladesh has banned polythene bags altogether while Taiwan and Singapore are taking steps to discourage their use.

The petition was started on July 24 and aims to collect 10,000 signatures.

Environmentalist Jean Saunders, 61, from Longcot, hasn't accepted a plastic bag from a shop for 20 years.

She also goes out of her way to avoid packaging.

"I proactively won't buy food that is packaged.

"I choose loose vegetables over wrapped produce and take my own bags to wrap goods in.

"If I have to take packaged goods, I leave the packaging at the counter and complain.

"I despair when I see people taking plastic bags in shops.

"They likely go straight in the bin and then lie around in landfill sites for hundreds of years.

"You can fit a bag in your pocket. Also there is no excuse for not having bags in your car," she said.

The petition to charge for bags will be presented to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).For more information visit www.green-eng land.co.uk/ plasticbagpetition.