Page 1 of 1
Reduce plastic petition
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:20 pm
by Andy Hamilton
Online petitions have come a long way since I first heard of them and it seems like an ideal place to get your voice heard. With this in mind I have just started one up to
introduce a green tax. I am aware that it is an idealistic notion but if even met half way it could make a real difference.
Here is the statement -
Dear Prime Minister
We call for you to tax major retailers as about 80% of our waste could be reused or recycled. Most will agree that it is plastic packaging that makes up for the bulk of our household waste.
Ireland introduced a tax on carrier bags back in 2002 and it has reduced bag use by over 90%.
So why do we not introduce it here and take it further so that all retailers will have to pay a tax on packaging? It is about time that the major retailers are forced to make a real difference to what is unnecessarily produced and ultimately ends up in a landfill for centuries.
The tax should pay for environmental projects around the country and not into the chancellor's pocket.
The U.K. Could lead the way for much needed environmental reform.
and you can sign the petition by
visiting here.
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:31 pm
by 9ball
I've signed up Andy, although you might want to set one up on the PM's site
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ as well.
Tom
hi there
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:02 pm
by maggie144
i have just signed this petition lets hope we can get something done
maggie
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:43 am
by titch7069
Good plan, will sign the petition.
The Tanzanian government recently announced that the manufacturing and importation of plastic bags was to be 'outlawed', in addition that anything that counts as 'green' or renewable would have no taxes levied, sounds like a step in the right direction. I guess thats a benefit of an emerging nation, they get to learn from all the mistakes made in the 'first world'.
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 3:18 pm
by the.fee.fairy
Will sign later...work doesn't like political stuff.
Any chance of getting staples banned d'ya reckon?
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:22 am
by ohareward
This is from Time magazine.
The estimated number of years for a plastic bag to decompose is 1000. About 100 million plastic bags are used annually worldwide.
Robin
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:17 am
by Merry
Done - good luck!
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:47 pm
by mithril
All done and passing it on to some other friends too!
mithril.
Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 1:55 pm
by the.fee.fairy
Finally managed to sign it
Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:16 pm
by mew
Andy, brilliant idea and one that def could make a difference, but please take 9ball's advice and put it on the government's petition's site. If you get over 100 signatories on this site you are guaranteed a response from government and this site is averaging about 7million hits a day since its get continous coverage from the BBC both on the web and sometime on TV.
I would suggest that anyone who has a petition on another site also replicates it onto the government one.
Good luck though, and I will defo sign it
MEW xx
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:09 pm
by marshlander
I've signed too - good idea Andy.
It would help if the plastic that had to be used could all be recycled - our council can only take "1" and "2". A lot of packaging isn't even marked - that would help too.
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 5:13 pm
by old tree man
Hi andy
with you all the way
all the best
Russ
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:00 pm
by hedgewitch
Excellent Andy!
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 8:09 am
by niknak
Just worries me that all shops will be tarred with the same brush. Small shops are struggling with all of the taxes and paperwork anyway.
We have a sign up in our shop asking people to recycle their plastic bags with us, so we can use them again but so far have had very little response. When I asked one guy if he minded having a recycled bag his response was ' I'm sick of all this recycling stuff and saving the planet, I'm going the other way and buying a V12 car'
Wonder if he has kids?