AN environmental group has launched a campaign to rid a market town of plastic carrier bags.

The newly formed Richmond Action for Climate and Environment group wants people to carry reusable shopping bags to help prevent damage to wildlife and reduce the waste that goes to landfill.

Its first meeting will be held in the town this month, and members hope local people will back the campaign.

Spokeswoman Sheila Pearson said: "We would like to see the end of plastic carrier bags and people using reusable shopping bags made from sustainable materials.

"That is not going to happen overnight, but we hope people in the short term will reuse plastic carrier bags and not keep getting new ones every time they shop."

The group began when people from the town's churches got together to work on environmental issues. They broadened the group to include non-worshippers and hope to recruit as many members as possible to help launch and run other projects.

The group has already made links with other organisations with an environmental agenda, including councils and the Richmond Pride volunteers, who meet regularly to tidy up the town.

Mrs Pearson said: "Everyone has been very encouraging.

"We are planning an official launch for the carrier bag campaign later in the autumn."

She praised supermarkets, including the Co-op, in Richmond, and some independent shops for selling cloth shopping bags, and congratulated North Yorkshire County Council for promoting reusable bags.

Mrs Pearson hopes that Richmond will follow towns such as Modbury, in Devon, and Hebden Bridge, in West Yorkshire, which have banned plastic carrier bags.

Environmental damage caused by the bags include marine pollution and the deaths of seabirds and marine life that swallow or become entangled in the bags.

Most plastic bags take hundreds of years to rot away on landfill rubbish tips. More than ten billion plastic carrier bags are used each year in the UK.

The action group will meet in the Methodist church lounge, in Dundas Street, Richmond, at 7.30pm on Wednesday, September 19. Non members are welcome.