Plastic Bags

[ina]

The only thing to do in this situation is to hold up the queue even longer by unpacking what this silly check out person has packed in plastic bags and re-packing it in your own... That'll teach her! (Or probably not.)

[Millymollymandy]

Well at least they help. That's nice. Here they just start shoving the next customers stuff in amongst your stuff. Everything is so rush rush rush. I hate supermarket shopping in France! Whoever said this country was laid back?

[Shirley]

Well at least they help. That's nice.

M3 - that's so right!!! Actually the supermarket here is quite friendly - as much as I don't like supporting Mr T***o I do find myself in there from time to time as it's cheap and sells what I need every day rather than having to wait and drive miles to where ever the farmers' markets are.

[ina]

I don't actually think supermarkets are cheap - it's just that they sell stuff that you can't get at markets and small shops, and that's the cheap stuff! So yes, you can get cheaper cheese, but if you want to buy exactly the same cheese at T***o's, chances are that either they don't sell it, or it's more expensive... It does have a fancy label on it then, too (Finest or whatever...), which you have to pay for...

[Andy Hamilton]

Thought I would add to this thread with some more news about getting rid of plastic bags. I emailed a random group of politicains and asked them what they thought of a 'green fee' on carrier bags.

I suggested that the green fee could be added in the same way as the plastax, but all the money raised does not go to the treasury it goes to pay for green projects. I have had a two responses so far....

Burt Lorey - Lib Dem MP from Solihull

nice idea: I'm sure our lib dem envt spokes chris huhne will respond

lorely burt

Peter Bottomley - Conservative Mp for Worthing west

He says that he welcomes the idea, although he is not the person to do anything about it.

As I expected the lib dems were interested, torys lip service and nothing from Labour.

[Shirley]

yep - that's pretty much what I would have expected too Andy!

Saw a really funny cartoon about all the mps jumping on the green bandwagon.. i must find it again and scan it...

[Taz Mack]

As you can probably tell I'm a newbie and apologies for not having read the whole thread, but I thought you might be interested in the fact that Ireland has had a plastic bag tax for a few years now (15 cent) and it did help to reduce the litter. However the effect gradually wore off and in the past few weeks the tax has been increased to 30 cent. We'll have to wait and see if this makes a difference.

[Shirley]

Hiya Taz Mac... Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for sharing that info.. I had heard about the 15% but not the 30%. I'm guessing, by the fact that you are posting here, that you don't use plastic bags yourself

Looking forward to hearing more from you.

[Taz Mack]

Hi Shirley.
Nice to hear from you.

In fact one of our local supermarkets sell a 'bag for life' and when it wears out they replace it for free ( have to suffer through the advertising on the bag though) and that's what I use most.

Although I was kinda famous for my 'manbag' for a few years, until my teenage kids rose up in rebellion. Now I'm past the age where I care about such things - has to be some consolation for the grey hairs.

Cheers,

Taz

[hedgewizard]

Yeah, I've bought a few of those too when I've been stuck. I refuse to carry them around though, as I don't feel that T***o is something I should be advertising!

[Shirley]

Hedgie

Turn them inside out and decorate them yourself... The Ish logo maybe lol

[hedgewizard]

they have a use in my office holding wads of paperwork, and when they split mr T***o replaces them for me :-)

As for shopping, well now I have a fine selection of ish bags courtesy of andy! Thanks Andy, they arrived today

[Shirley]

I still haven't got mine - hillbilly was right... will be weeks before they get here

[DaisyDaisy]

For a few years I've been using some canvas shopping bags (that are about 25 yrs old!) but making sure I had about 1 plastic carrier bag a week as a rubbish bag - and my dilemma really was what to use indstead as bin bags.

Then I found corn starch bin bags at Natural collection - they are biodegradable & much better as bin bags than plastic carrier bags because they don't have holes in the bottom - so less drips in the bin!

Now I just need to remember to take a canvas bag whenever I shop - as they live in the car I don't have much of an excuse.

I wonder how long it will take the supermarkets to convert to cornstarch bags? Assuming they know about them.

[Shelle]

DaisyDaisy ... thank you for your last post ... i did not know about cornstarch bags

So putting in Cornstarch Bags into Google ... this is the path i have been following this morning ...

http://ausasialink.com/news.php?_function=News
http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=4166
http://www.hastings.nsw.gov.au/www/html ... r-form.asp

From this search i have discovered an incentive through my local council & signed up immediately. I will also be following this up with my current employer to see how we can implement it there also. I have also posted the information up on my Blog.

DaisyDaisy thank you for your inspiration ...

Shelle