Street campaign to ditch plastic

Shoppers will also be offered bags made from compostable potato starch

A shopping street in Bristol is launching its own campaign to go plastic-bag free.

More than 50 traders on Gloucester Road are supporting the move and are pledging to phase out plastic carrier bags from their shops.

Shoppers are being encouraged to join the campaign and can buy cloth bags or cheaper compostable potato starch bags.

The Gloucester Road Alternative Bag campaign (GRAB) have organised an exhibition about the initiative.

'Do the right thing'

Marcus Wells, from the Breadstore on Gloucester Road said: "We've been really encouraged by the support we've had from our customers when we did a trial run charging for bio-degradable bags.

" The GRAB campaign is a great partnership between shoppers and shop keepers and I hope it will prove a great inspiration to other communities who want to do the right thing."

Gaby Solly, from GRAB, said: "We're really pleased that so many traders have pledged to phase out plastic bags from their stores.

"Every single one of them is doing their bit to help reduce the pollution problems caused by unnecessary plastic bags."

An event has been organised on Saturday from 1000 to 1400 BST for shoppers to find out more about the campaign.