Plastic Bags

[Chickenlady]

Very much more encouraging than I expected (apart from the Co-op who are always ahead of the game and, I believe, sincere) although
I think the biggies like T***o pay do the absolute minimum they can get away with to make their customers feel they are being 'green'.

Still, 'every little helps'!!

Jane

[Guest]

Andy,
I thought this would be of interest to you: http://www.mikepringlemsp.com/ This MSP has been campaigning for a levy on plastic bags in Scotland, there is an interesting pdf doc you can download. I have sent him an email asking him what is happening on this issue as the cut off date for responses on this doc is May 2004. If I lived in Edinburgh he would certainly get my vote on this issue alone.

[greenbean]

Oops, that last guest post about plastic bags was me by the way, I forgot to log in.

[Andy Hamilton]

cheers greenbean have just sent him a mail, will see his response.

[diver]

you don't see them in Ireland much...in Dublin anyway as I believe the Govt. taxes them in order to cut down on waste....my family over there now have old fashioned shopping bags....why can't we do that here

[Andy Hamilton]

you don't see them in Ireland much...in Dublin anyway as I believe the Govt. taxes them in order to cut down on waste....my family over there now have old fashioned shopping bags....why can't we do that here

Part of the campaign idea is also to try and lobby the govenment to bring in such a tax over here. Aparently it really has made a difference to the levels of litter over in Ireland as well as cutting down on waste. I need to set this up on the main site but if you can find the email addresses of your local candidates in the forthcomming election the try and send them this email

***********************

Hello candiates name

Over 10 billion plastic carrier bags are used in this country and only 1% ever get reused. As you can imagine this puts a massive strain on our already over burdened landfill sites. see http://www.selfsufficientish.com/carrier%20bags.htm

I would like to propose the notion of a 'plastax'. This has already worked in Ireland reducing bag use by somewhere between 90-97%. The revenue raised can be used to fund environmental projects across our country.

Look forward to hearing from you.
Your name

***********************

this might help yo find them if you do wan't to get involved.

http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge05.htm

I am also in negotiation with another site to get some jute bags with a 'carry a bag' logo on them that should be for sale soon as they can be. We will be trying to sell them for as cheap as we can.

[Lyds Guy]

Thanks for your work on carrier bags - excellent - one of the hardest things is to make shops understand that I DO NOT WANT A BAG. It seems that shop staff have been trained to bag ones shopping and it's an automatic response. I said no bag thanks in Boots last week and the girl still bagged up my shopping while I had by empty basket on the counter. I then had to unpack and repack and held up the rest of the queue.

I have one real bugbear about plastic and that is the quantity of carriers hung flapping in trees and caught on telegraph wires. YES, tax plastic and perhaps people willbe more responsible.

Many, many years ago, when I was a child, we always took a basket and/or bag before we went to the shops. Nothing was put into a bag unless it was needed (bacon for instance).

Does anyone remember the Robinsons paper bags with spaces on the back to stick the golly from the jam pot? I think you had to collect 12 to send off for a badge...

Imust be getting old and crabby

[greenbean]

Hi Lyds Guy,
I agree with you, Andy is doing a great job with his campaign. I too have got strange looks in stores when I pull out my cotton reusable bag and on more than a few occassions have had to argue not to have to have my purchase bagged. You're right, it used to be standard practice to go out shopping organised with your own bags (it's not even that long ago, I'm only mid 30's). Then again, more people shopped locally then at independant greengrocers and butchers, now we have the majority of people buying from supermarkets which is a whole other subject that I could go on about for quite some time. Sorry, don't recall the golly bags, only the golly tokens on jam jars.
With supermarkets using plastic bags as an advertisement, wouldn't it be fair to charge them for hanging their adverts in trees?

[Muddypause]

If one of those overpai^h^h clever 'designer' designers could come up with a way to make those tartan shopping trollies that my grandma used to use look sexy, then the carrier bag problem would be solved overnight.

I expect it would have to have a built in MP3 player, and come with matching roller blades.

[Wombat]

Well said Stew!

We actually have and use one of those trolleys , they are a bit hard to get, there are newer ones coming in from Asia but not as strong or big as the originals .

We have made something up using an old second hand pram and a couple of plastic boxes which works as well or better. The problem with the old two wheel pull trolleys is that if you had a bag of spuds you had to take some of that weight but with four wheels they support the weight and you just push. This makes it easier, especially if you are small and female like my wife .

It works for us anyway!

Nev

[Lyds]

Hi, I forgot to log in last post and came up as guest,never mind. I have a friend who started using a shopping trolly and her daughter refused to go out with her! My daughter does'nt like me using a shopping basket because "no one else does" and it makes me look old. But, I shall carry one anyway.
Thought: Should supermarkets pay their customers to carry free advertising on carrier bags? My grandmother used to turn T***o bags inside out as she said she wasn't going to be a walking advert for them!

[ina]

I've never seen so many people who don't like plastic bags, either! Brilliant!

But I don't think putting a tax on them will work. It'll just get people annoyed at yet another Government ploy to relieve them of their money.

In Germany, which is where I originate from, plastic bags cost money, like every other item you buy in the shop, but it's not called tax - I think there is an important difference. If shops weren't allowed to give away goods for free, which they are effectively doing by not charging for the bags, customers would think twice whether they really wanted to "buy" bags. Funny enough, Lidl seems to be the only shop so far which charges for bags, and they are, of course, German.

In other shops customers pay for the bags, too - the cost is just spread over the goods they pay as hidden cost, like so many other things that make shopping an "exciting experience", awful music, a greeter at the door etc...

I also find the argument, plastic bags could be re-used as bin liners rather odd. In Germany nobody I knew used bin liners, we just emptied the kitchen bin straight into the big bin outside, without wrapping the rubbish twice, in shopping bags first, and then in black bags, like most people seem to do here...

Where I live now, we have to use bags - no bins available. But I just wonder why my neighbours still waste money on black bags, when we have a constant supply of empty feed bags, and at the moment nobody who'd take them for recycling! They are even stronger than the black bags. If you know a farmer, they'll probably be only too happy to let you have bags for free, plus baling twine to tie them up with. And that's about the strongest string you can find anywhere; another useful item for recycling. My parcels to Germany at Christmas were all tied up with baling twine; the postoffice didn't complain!

[Haddock]

I agree with INA that the best way forward is for shops to charge for plastic bags. Here in Germany everyone takes cloth bags or boxes when they go shopping. You rarely see shoppers buying plastic bags.
The only supermarket I have seen here that gave away plastic bags for free was Walmart - and they are the evil empire anyway.
But at the end of the day, whether its by having a tax, or by charging for bags, if the end result means less plastic bags, then it will be a very good outcome.

[Andy Hamilton]

My grandmother used to turn T***o bags inside out as she said she wasn't going to be a walking advert for them!

I like the sound of your grandma

But I don't think putting a tax on them will work. It'll just get people annoyed at yet another Government ploy to relieve them of their money.

What if the money went towards trying to repair the damage to the environment that plastic has/is causing/caused? Would be a much better option than giving more money to the already huge supermarket chains.

But at the end of the day, whether its by having a tax, or by charging for bags, if the end result means less plastic bags, then it will be a very good outcome.

exactly!


Aldi and Netto also charge for bags, they are the cheapest supermarkets over here so perhaps this is why. Most shoppers will bring their own bags!

[ina]

Quite right, theoretically it shouldn't matter what you call the "fee" you pay for the plastic bags, as long as it is charged and leads to fewer bags being used. However, following the news I get the impression that the British are somewhat paranoid about anything that's called "tax", so I think it would be psychologically more successful if it was called something different - an "eco-contribution" maybe??? I base this view on the fact that a lot of British don't want "European" conditions here, because "they" allegedly pay so much more tax than we here. I don't think so; it's just got a different name.

Anyway, how about a nice cloth bag with the selfsufficientish logo on it? To add to the about 20 bags I have already - one from Italy, one from England (hooray), the rest from Germany? (I got a lot of them from friends as gifts, because I can't get them here...) I'll see what I can find out about potential cost.

Ina