View Full Version : Plastic Bags
What does everyone think about the "Banish the Bags" campaign launched by the Daily Mail.
Supermarkets give out a tremendous amount of plastic bags.Tesco give out 3 billion bags a year, Sainsburys 1.6 billion, Waitrose 300 million and Somerfields 640 million. Each of us in Britain uses 216 plastic bags a year. The majority of the bags are degradeable and rot in active landfill in a few months but if they are simply discarded they can take up to 18 months to degrade. It dosen't matter where you are you'll always spot a thrown away plastic bag.
Looks like we will all have to revert back to the "old message bag" to try and help stop the plastic pollution.
Highland Laddie
29-Feb-08, 00:19
What does everyone think about the "Banish the Bags" campaign launched by the Daily Mail.
Supermarkets give out a tremendous amount of plastic bags.Tesco give out 3 billion bags a year, Sainsburys 1.6 billion, Waitrose 300 million and Somerfields 640 million. Each of us in Britain uses 216 plastic bags a year. The majority of the bags are degradeable and rot in active landfill in a few months but if they are simply discarded they can take up to 18 months to degrade. It dosen't matter where you are you'll always spot a thrown away plastic bag.
Looks like we will all have to revert back to the "old message bag" to try and help stop the plastic pollution.
I haven't used plastic bags in a long time, we use calico message bags, i always keep two or three in the boot of all the cars.
All for it - plastic bags kill thousands of sea creatures every year - they wash up on beaches - the majority do not rot down with in a few months.
And it's not just bags - its plastic everything. Walk along a beach and you'll see a high water mark defined by bottles, boxes, plastic can loops, toys and more.
http://www.messageinthewaves.com/facts.php
I use 'bags for life' heavy duty bags which I paid for and when they are no longer usuable I hand them in and get new ones with the old ones being recycled.
We don't use Tesco plastic bags anymore, we use their hessian natural bags now, we get extra points for using them and they are so much easier to carry and they stack a lot easier in the car boot. I think they are fairtrade as well.
We don't use Tesco plastic bags anymore, we use their hessian natural bags now,
Haven't seen the hessian bags yet. I'll have a look tomorrow as last Friday all my Bags for Life blew away in the gales when I was getting them out of the car at Tescos. Didn't help my carbon footprint at all.
Now, maybe if all those little tartan message bags on wheels came back as the latest must-have fashion accessory.....................
j4bberw0ck
29-Feb-08, 00:59
I think they are fairtrade as well.
Oh. no. Not that as well.
All in favour of getting rid of plastic bags. Even more in favour of getting rid of anything at all to do with "Fair Trade", which just holds developing countries back and makes them completely subservient to charity.
Margaret M.
29-Feb-08, 05:19
we get extra points for using them and they are so much easier to carry and they stack a lot easier in the car boot.
I have the reusable grocery bags too -- I avoid plastic any which way I can.
Even more in favour of getting rid of anything at all to do with "Fair Trade", which just holds developing countries back and makes them completely subservient to charity.
Oh dear, have I been being gullible again with my fair trade coffee and bananas etc. PLease explain Jabberwocky
Oh dear, have I been being gullible again with my fair trade coffee and bananas etc. PLease explain Jabberwocky
I am interested how he explains that a 'fair price' is a charitable donation.
Have refused many times to have plastic bags - years ago you would get the sales assistant who absolutely insisted you must have a bag as that was shop rules. Used to say I would just like my receipt as proof of purchase - inevitably whatever I was purchasing would be put in a plastic bag which I would take, remove the goods purchased and return the plastic bag to the sales assistant, say I do not wish to have your rubbish. Twice I had the store manager sent for as I refused to take a bag - how things have changed!
The local shops know I do not take plastic bags - always have pockets or have heavy duty bags with me. Shops now accept as long as you have your receipt it is fine, no need for everything to be further wrapped in plastic.
skinnydog
29-Feb-08, 10:33
I think that it is a great idea to banish them. I have started to politely refuse plastic bags in the Co-op and some of the checkout operators look at me as if I am mad!
We've not used plastic bags for many many years, we just put the shopping directly into the trolley and then into boxes and insulated bags once in the car. In Tesco our preamble is "we don't use bags", so are given points by the till operator; for every bag not used we get points, so quickly mounts up..
Plastic bags should be banned! There is no need for them - there are plenty boxes that get crushed and put straight to the bin which could serve as carriers for those with cars. My father always takes boxes with him when my parents do their weekly shop. They last for quite a while so you don't need new ones everytime.
I have various shopping bags and baskets depending on what I will be buying. I even have old fashioned shopping baskets bought from auction sales and depending on how much shopping I have to do I choose the size I need.
In fact my local shop is used to me doing my shopping with my own basket instead of theirs and they don't object. When I do a large shopping I'm afraid it comes in plastic bags but I do use them for disposing of dog poo.
If I am just shopping for small items from shops other than groceries, I am happy to put them straight into my pocket instead of it going into a paper bag then into a carrier.
We have become used to plastic bags because they are free and easily available but we wouldn't starve if they banned them tomorrow.....and we may even stop buying so much unnecessary items if we had to provide the receptacles to take them home in.....but then that wouldn't suit the supermarkets would it?
P.S. The shopping trolleys on sale these days are becoming a wee bit more fashionable and have better wheels so next birthday......;)
I also use my own bags, but in Tescos you say you don't want help in packing, get up to that end and they have packed and put stuff in plastic bags with a OH SORRY you have your own bags.
I also use my own bags, but in Tescos you say you don't want help in packing, get up to that end and they have packed and put stuff in plastic bags with a OH SORRY you have your own bags.
Time to put your foot down with a heavy hand......:lol:
I'm all for a ban on plastic bags as they are horrible and unnecessary!
A bit here about other countries who ban/charge for plastic bags; us? well we just fiddle around the edges as usual..
http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/doc.asp?docId=21222&preview=1 (http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/doc.asp?docId=21222&preview=1)
j4bberw0ck
29-Feb-08, 13:54
I am interested how he explains that a 'fair price' is a charitable donation.
Oh dear, have I been being gullible again with my fair trade coffee and bananas etc. PLease explain Jabberwocky
Depends on your definition of fair price; since it amounts to a payment greater than the market would otherwise determine, it's a subsidy. Or charitable donation, if you prefer. The rest is our old friend market forces.
I've done more than my fair share of off-topic stuff the last couple of days, for which I apologise. This is a thread about plastic bags.
@Tilter: No one could say your urge to help is wrong. It's Fair Trade Fortnight just now, and the Adam Smith Institute published a report (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://www.adamsmith.org/images/pdf/unfair_trade.pdf) on Fair Trade at the start of the Fortnight. A good read, if you can stick with it. Fair Trade's also been extensively discussed on Radio 4, with Jon Humphries getting ripped into supporters and opponents alike. There was an excellent piece (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/politics/brassneck/feb08/fairtrade.htm) in the Telegraph at the start of the Fortnight - check out some of the comments from disillusioned Fair Trade supporters. Fair Trade in Brazil has led directly to destruction of protected virgin rainforest; in Africa it's impoverished whole communities because so many farmers have switched from food to Fair Trade goods, the community now has to import food and pay with currency it doesn't have - so more charity from the West. If you want to know more, I'll be happy to try to explain.
You could check out microloan sites for entrepreneurs (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://www.kiva.org) - a proven way of helping people out of poverty.
Depends on your definition of fair price; since it amounts to a payment greater than the market would otherwise determine, it's a subsidy.
Since fairtrade customers buy at a price that they are happy with, with the full knowledge that the farmer is getter a fair price for his product(rather than one that is determined by liberal market forces and profiteering by western economies etc) then that is the market price in that sector. There is no subsidy that I can see. In the end there is little price difference between fairtrade and other brands.
... there are plenty boxes that get crushed and put straight to the bin which could serve as carriers for those with cars.
Whatever happened to the empty cardboard boxes you used to find under the end of the till or in a 'cardboard box corral' near the tills?
I used to take those to put a weekly 'shop' into. Do any stores still provide the unwanted boxes anymore or is it due to the companies moving to plastic crates that the old faithful cardboard box has now become extinct?
j4bberw0ck
29-Feb-08, 14:09
There is no subsidy that I can see.
Rheghead, you're very obviously not a stupid person. So you're on another wind-up, at a guess. Have a nice day :lol: .
Rheghead, you're very obviously not a stupid person. So you're on another wind-up, at a guess. Have a nice day :lol: .
No I'm not, what would you rather have, a fair price to the farmer and all its socio-demographic benefits or increased profits to an international company? It seems like you'd rather want the latter.
You wanna flex those economic brain muscles and dump the broad.....
j4bberw0ck
29-Feb-08, 14:30
Research by the Government-funded Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) found that a levy on plastic bags in Ireland only made matters worse. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/09/28/eaplastic128.xml)
Interesting viewpoint.
It seems like you'd rather want the latter.
Unnerving, really, that you'd reach such a conclusion based on what I've said.
Lidl have had the right idea from the start, in all the time the shop in Wick has been open I think I've paid for one bag. Marks and Sparks are going to charge 5p per bag as a deterrent, great idea!
I always try to use my own bags, although I need a few carrier bags as my kitchen bin is a 'Simplehuman' eco-friendly bin designed to reuse carrier bags.
Lots of great products... http://www.simplehuman.co.uk
j4bberw0ck
29-Feb-08, 14:36
Love this quote (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/09/28/eaplastic128.xml): "You have to remember which problem you're trying to solve".
Applies to plastic bags, evidently, as well as Fair Trade and power generation!
the charlatans
29-Feb-08, 17:47
Whatever happened to the empty cardboard boxes you used to find under the end of the till or in a 'cardboard box corral' near the tills?
I used to take those to put a weekly 'shop' into. Do any stores still provide the unwanted boxes anymore or is it due to the companies moving to plastic crates that the old faithful cardboard box has now become extinct?
I remember these and how useful they were. But.... all those boxes were a fire hazard so off they jolly well went. Now Tesco returns its boxes with it southbound lorries to be re-cycled/re-used. (except Oban Tescos which uses them for the deliveries for the island folk).
We at Charlatans Ranch use the sturdy plastic bottle bags from the Co-op with the inside separator bit cut out, ace, plus we enjoyed drinking the bottles when we first got them. Plus i think i'm dead posh cos i have an Antiques Roadshow hessian big bag. Its just a matter of getting into the habit.
My grandma had one of the tartan trollies and i used to love using it. Bring back the tartan trollies i say.
[quote=the charlatans;348812
my grandma had one of the tartan trollies and i used to love using it. Bring back the tartan trollies i say.[/quote]
These still get a lot of use in England...but unfortunately the presence of lots of them along with the shops own trolleys makes for a situation akin to the fairground Dogems.:eek:
Like Rheg we keep hessian carriers in the boot of the car...it's remembering to take them out that's the problem.;)
cuddlepop
29-Feb-08, 18:10
I agree we need to ban the plastic bags but we'll need to find an alternative for the plastic poop bags.
I tend to find paper a bit fragile.:confused
snip> My grandma had one of the tartan trollies and i used to love using it. Bring back the tartan trollies i say.
My mum recently bought a nice black shopping trolley from Tesco, it looks a bit more 21st century ;)
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