Our obsession with plastic bags is hard to wrap your head around: we use 500 BILLION plastic bags a year. That means in the time it's taking you to read this, we'll have used another million plastic bags.

A million plastic bags a minute? Where is this going to leave us?

With a devastated environment, depleted wildlife and a toxic food chain that we are at the top of.

Plastic bags are the ultimate symbol of our modern throwaway lifestyles. Visit any supermarket car park or walk along any road or beach and you are bound to see plastic bags caught in the hedgerow or washed up on the sand.

Used for an average of just 12 minutes, this convenience for us unfortunately has much longer effects on our environment. Plastic bags cause harm or can kill wildlife. Birds and animals become tangled in them or accidently eat them.

Plastic never disappears. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, called microplastics. In some places, there are now more plastic fragments than sea plankton.

This is contaminating our soil and water and harming our wildlife. Because creatures are now ingesting this plastic, the toxins are being passed on to us. Do you fancy plastic and chips for tea?

We are destroying Earth's delicate balance - and not using plastic bags is one of the simplest first steps to redressing that balance. It's a no-brainer.

Over 100 towns and communities across the UK have already gone plastic bag free - The Deepings and Sleaford in Lincolnshire are in the planning stages too.

So, come on, Lincoln. Let's not wait for everyone else to fix the problem. Let's make a difference right now and ban plastic bags.

It's so easy - take a reusable bag shopping with you and you can do your bit for the environment. This is all our responsibility, so let's make the change now.

Let's show the rest of the country that yellowbellies have a green streak!