Two years ago we were giving out 20,000+ plastic shopping bags per week. That's approximately 4 bags per customer per visit. Now we're down to just 4000 bags per week or half a bag per customer per week. That's a fantastic reduction of 77%.

Manager Alan Reed said: "Customers have shown great reponses to the campaign with approximatelyhalf of people using their own recyclable bags while the other half make use of the cardboard boxes we supply."

Some shoppers still request plastic bags, so Dewsons applied a surcharge of 5c per bag, up to 30c in total. the money collected from the surcharge ( $230.00 since December 3 ) has been donated to the Eastern Goldfeilds Surf Lifesaving Club.

Allen continues: "it's great to see the general public taking a proactive approach instead of waiting for teh government to impose it's promised levy of 20x per bag. Our efforts might seem like a drop in the ocean in the overall scheme of things but we have to start somewhere and we should be proud that we're setting an example."