A MONMOUTHSHIRE town is aiming to join Newport in becoming the first plastic bag-free zones in South East Wales.

Green activists in Monmouth are urging shoppers to stop accepting free plastic bags and start carrying re-usable cloth ones instead.

With similar schemes planned in Newport and Chepstow, Gwent is now at the forefront of green shopping bag projects in Wales, according to the Keep Wales Tidy charity.

An estimated one billion single-use carrier bags are given out each year in Wales.

The damage caused to the environment when they are discarded is something Vivien Mitchell, vice-chairman of Monmouth Partnership Forum, is desperate to stop.

"The plastic takes so long to degrade, which causes terrible problems to wildlife," said Mrs Mitchell.

Ann Were is a fellow member of the Partnership Forum's Green Lights Group, and a Green Party town councillor.

"Plastic bags contribute to climate change, because when they go to landfill they produce methane which is 21 more times potent than carbon dioxide," she said.

Monmouth Partnership Forum, which is campaigning alongside the local Friends of the Earth branch, have placed an order for 500 cloth bags.

They will go on sale in independent shops and the town's Farmers' Market, which meets once a month.

Newport council announced plans to make the city a plastic bag-free zone last year, and said it would begin lobbying Parliament and the Welsh Assembly to introduce a levy or outright ban on all single-use bags if residents supported it.

Tegryn Jones, chief executive of Keep Wales Tidy, is "extremely supportive" of such schemes, which he says are "entirely practical".

Chairman of Monmouth and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce, David Cummings, said he was in favour of the plans and hoped retailers would support them.