LISKEARD'S mayor Anne Purdon was at the town's library to launch a new scheme which will see customers offered eco-friendly bags instead of plastic carriers. It is part of a county-wide project which will see Cornwall County Council's library service withdraw plastic bags from all of its libraries. Historically, the library service has supplied thousands of plastic bags a year to customers to enable them to carry their loans home from the library. However, with concerns growing over the damage caused to the environment by single-use plastic bags, the county council has decided to withdraw the bags and instead offer library customers the opportunity to buy Hessian bags at a cost of £2 each. 'Research shows that the UK uses more plastic bags than any other country in Europe, with more than 13 billion handed out to consumers each year,' said Eric Brooke, the council's executive member for community services. 'Most of these are then thrown away and end up as litter on roads, parks and beaches or in the ocean, where they are potentially fatal to marine animals.'