Plastic Bags

[Mike]

Government drive to stop supermarkets from giving out plastic bags to customers in on the way now. I am sure you have seen the M&S charging 5p for the bags now which I am sure it is a profit margin increaser, nothing to do with the environmental impact. One thing I think they are really really missing though, using the presumption they actually want to reduce the number of plastic bags being used, why are they not mentioning the plastic BIN BAGS?

In Stockport 60 are given out free every year to each household for their rubbish. I am not really sure what you would use instead as they do make sure that your bins don't need bleaching every week. . .

[johnriley1uk]

As with a lot of these things there's a point but what is being done has nothing to do with saving the environment. We re-use platic bags as bin bags, thus saving manufacture of another bag. In future we will have to buy bin bags every time. The manufacture of our alternative re-usable shopping bags has a Carbon cost as much as a plastic one probably and when they eventually give up the ghost they go into landfill and release methane...

There are things environmentally that need to be done, but platic bags are not IMHO really the issue. It's a great opportunity for shops to charge us for something that previously was a cost to them....

[Fez]

another inadequate feel good measure for the green-minded middle class that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the pollution problems this country faces. ban plastic bags, ban bottled water, tax 4x4 to the nines and none of it is going to make a serious impact toward reversing decades of industrial waste. every little bit helps but this is such a tiny bit when compared to the scale of the crisis in hand its like trying to catch a hurricane in a thimble. where are the real solutions?

[johnriley1uk]

Nature will find its own solution and we will be powerless to stop it.

[Andy]

What really irritates me about this is that Wigan, as a borough, has very little money invested from the government to help recycling compared to the majority of boroughs. Speaking to a guy called Nick, when I took the kids from school there to learn about it, he told me that they had 35% (I think) of what a similar borough gets down South. He also told me that this limits the councils ability to waste manage and said it would take years before every home got a plastics bin which every home desperately needs if you think about it. He went on about the hidden costs - bin replacements, petrol and vans for collection, wages, etc and said they were astronomical.

He also told me how much he hated Jamie Oliver and blamed him for making parents scared of obesity and attributed him as the main reason for the 400% increase in waste plastic as a result of botttled water, pre-packaged sandwiches, etc. In fact, quite a few of the people on that trip said they wanted to hurt him.

It is fine by me to be charged for a plastic bag - I shop at Lidl and Aldi where they do so - but what I resent is being told that I am helping the environment when I am blindingly not doing so because major issues are not being addressed.

[Claire]

I think we are perhaps working under the assumption that people will continue to use the exact same number of plastic bags; they will simply pay for the privilege. But, I think this is neither the point nor the case:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2205419.stm

I posted a rant on the forum about the fact that legislation should 'compel' people to buy energy saving lightbulbs, and lo and behold it will shortly be impossible to buy anything else. I believe - as with seemingly all these environmental issues - the government needs to be more pro-active and less reactionary. All they seem to do is levy taxes without providing viable alternatives. Don't increase car tax exponentially; improve public transport. Subsidise the purchase of greener cars rather than hiking duties on gas guzzlers - or do both, if you ask me. And the people who complain about the aesthetic impact of wind turbines, and things like that really annoy me. Yes, their negative environmental impact must be considered (of tidal barrages and turbines etc), but the "eyesore" arguement??? London won't look pretty in 2108 when it's under water...

[Claire]

Ha, according to The Times on saturday, sales of little bin bags has gone up 400% since the ban in Ireland, which bear out John's point!

[mr_e]

That's a statistic I'd actually believe, looking at the amount of carrier bags we have functioning as bin-liners in our house. The real question is whether or not this increase offsets the other reductions they've made in plastic use...