A group of “bag ladies” were hoping to hit the right note with shoppers in Norwich today by encouraging them to give plastic carrier bags the boot.

The Bag Lady Choir have been serenading shoppers in the city centre as well as coaxing, cajoling, and if that failed, pestering them into giving up their plastic carrier bags for more sustainable alternatives.

Plastic bags are a huge problem, according to the Norwich-based climate action group called Wake Up Women – Some plastic bags facts they’ve listed:

Plastic bags can take between 500 and 1,000 years to decompose.

17.5 billion plastic bags are given away by UK supermarkets every year, the equivalent of 290 plastic bags per person.

It would take just 21 years to cover the whole of England with the plastic bags at the current rate supermarkets are giving them out.

A Minke Whale washed up on the Normandy Coast in 2002 had 800kg of plastic bags in its stomach.

When one ton of plastic bags are reused or recycled the equivalent energy of 11 barrels of oil is saved.

Ireland’s tax on plastic bags has resulted in a steep increase in shoppers choosing reusable bags from 36pc to 90pc in recent years.

Stumble it!