Released on: February 18, 2008, 10:11 pm

Press Release Author: Asterisk Events and Communications

Industry: Environment

Press Release Summary: Gibraltar - February 19, 2008 - A newly established
Gibraltar-based campaign group, dubbed as No to Plastic Bags (NO2PB), is aiming to
make Gibraltar a plastic bag-free town and is even launching a campaign to make the
town the first ever plastic bag-free city within the Iberian Peninsula.

Press Release Body: Gibraltar - February 19, 2008 - A newly established
Gibraltar-based campaign group, dubbed as No to Plastic Bags (NO2PB), is aiming to
make Gibraltar a plastic bag-free town and is even launching a campaign to make the
town the first ever plastic bag-free city within the Iberian Peninsula.

NO2PB is comprised of members of the Gibraltar community who are concerned with
various environmental issues including the town's seemingly endless dependency on
plastic bags. Inspired by Modbury, a town not that different in size compared to
Gibraltar that became the first plastic bag-free town in Europe, NO2PB highlighted
the government's pivotal action in kick-starting environmental and
ecologically-conscious projects as can be observed in several counties and regions
within Ireland, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and most
recently China.

The main reasons behind the group's inception include the following:

- Plastic bags are generally non-recyclable and those that are tend to be either
incinerated or buried within landfills;
- Plastic bags are hardy and resilient and whilst this make them the ideal transport
medium for our shopping it is also the reason for their recalcitrance;
- Plastic bags take hundreds of years to degrade naturally in the environment,
making them an eyesore as well as endangering our fauna that on occasions mistake
plastic bags for food;
- Plastic bags also tend to be incinerated with the rest of our waste and therefore
contribute to the emission of toxic gases into the atmosphere

To beef up their campaign, NO2PB has launched an online drive via the popular social
networking website Facebook. Dubbed as the "Say No to Plastic and Yes to Reusable
Bags," the ongoing campaign aims to reach out to at least 30,000 people connected to
Gibraltar. NO2PB hopes to get at least 50 percent of the said number to sign the
petition found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/No2PlasticBags/10374416156

- More -
NO2PB's campaign banners a pledge to "Bring Your Own Bag" wherein consumers are
encouraged to bring reusable bags to the shop or supermarket.

NO2PB says that by doing this, consumers are doing their share in saving wildlife
(as hundreds of thousands of marine creatures die every year from eating plastic
bags mistaken for food), saving trees (thousands of trees are needed to make all of
the paper bags used in Gibraltar annually), reducing waste (an estimated 4 billion
plastic bags end up as litter globally each year) and reducing dependency on oil
(thousands of barrels of oil are required to make millions of plastic shopping bags
used yearly in Gibraltar alone) NO2PB's campaign also asserts that if every
Gibraltar consumer brought their own reusable bags when shopping, tens of tonnes of
harmful carbon dioxide will be reduced.

NO2PB has announced that their group is in the process of organizing a press
conference where they hope to address any questions that the public may have.

For more information, send email to no2pbgib@gmail.com


About No to Plastic Bags - Gibraltar:

No To Plastic Bags (NO2PB) is a campaign group set up in Gibraltar. Comprised of
environmentally-conscious and concerned community members, the group aims to make
Gibraltar a plastic bag-free town. The group also has an ongoing "Say No to Plastic
and Yes to Reusable Bags" campaign via the popular social networking website
Facebook. The objectives of the campaign include saving wildlife and trees and
reducing waste. The campaign also aims to trim down dependence on oil as thousands
of oil barrels are needed to make millions of plastic bags for use in Gibraltar
alone. For more information, please contact NO2PB through email address
no2pbgib@gmail.com


Web Site: http://

Contact Details: Group: Email. no2pbgib@gmail.com
Ernest Teuma: Tel Nos. (H) +350 20074467 / (M) +350 54018805
Lyana Armstrong Emery: Email. lyana1@gmail.com