- Thread starter steve_s
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8ob
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This bag malarkey is just another load of ill conceived governmental codswallop,a bag weighs a gazillionth of the rest of the packaging used in the weekly shop.Tiz a load of bull that keeps another bunch of bureaucrats polishing chairs with their butts. A ban or regulating overly packaged/wrapped produce would go a lot further.
Bob
Bob
rtbcomp
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It's the nuisance the bags cause in the environment that's the problem, not the cost (environmentally & monetarily) of the materials. If people disposed of them properly in the first place there wouldn't be any need for the 'bag tax'. I use them for collecting kitchen waste, tie them up and put them in the bin - no litter and they get used twice.
WorkshopChris
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When out all i see is small plastic bags of dog mess discarded often tossed into hedges and verges.
A lot of the thinner bags sainsburys used use to brake down after a while at one time think they were experimenting with a starch mix or something similar.
Still doesn't make any sense if i go to Toolstation its 5p for bag, but if i order on line its fee delivery with lots of plastic packaging, how is that helping the environment?
A lot of the thinner bags sainsburys used use to brake down after a while at one time think they were experimenting with a starch mix or something similar.
Still doesn't make any sense if i go to Toolstation its 5p for bag, but if i order on line its fee delivery with lots of plastic packaging, how is that helping the environment?
8ob
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I cant see that " the plastic carrier bag" is an environmental issues by itself, Mrs Miggins does not take her shopping home and throw the bag out of her front door when she`s unpacked it . The problems caused by plastic in the environment are in the most part down to the great unwashed section of the community and ships dumping thousands of tons of household waste into the sea . I have a fair bit of road frontage at the yard and I could easily fill a bin bag with discarded drinks bottle, sweet wrappers,fag packets and drinks tins on a weekly basis. If the government want to make a difference they should hammer those that willingly throw litter out of car windows, I say willingly because some of it is accidental.
Rant over
Back to work
Bob
Rant over
Back to work
Bob
Gareth J
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It's not about directly doing the environment any good, it's about attempting to change the mindset of the population. Costs very little to implement and is a very visual/in your face change. You have to use a bag for life many, many times for it to beat the embodied energy in a disposable. But if it makes people think twice about disposal stuff, maybe it's worth it. Maybe..
8ob
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Cant help but think its like cleaning a Boeing 747 with a toothbrush. Its made no difference to the real time amount of plastic waste strewn up and down the roads around here, they are still picking up tons of it weekly. Perhaps we should cull the culprits
Perhaps they should make all the returned plastic wrappers a refundable item,if there was cash in it there would not be much of it laying about.
Bob
CompoSimmonite
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We have a wheelie bin for plastics & cardboard. It's always full to the brim - mainly with plastics as everything comes in them. On the other hand I refuse to buy plastic bags so have the big blue ones from Ikea and smaller cloth type folding bags from Wilko.
BTW there was a massive fire recently at a local plastic recycling plant. Turned out they were taking money from councils and then storing the waste until space ran out then it went into liquidation / "business fire" where all records lost.
BTW there was a massive fire recently at a local plastic recycling plant. Turned out they were taking money from councils and then storing the waste until space ran out then it went into liquidation / "business fire" where all records lost.
pedrobedro
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Whenever I go shopping I take my little orange Puma rucksack that I bought from a charity shop for 50p. I have a couple of bag for life type in the side pocket in case we need anything bigger and it doubles as a day sack for picnics. The handles don't cut your circulation off either.
Some figure from before and after the charge was introduced at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36917174
I know there's still loads of unnecessary plastic packaging about but reducing bag usage by around 6 billion bags per year is a good start
I know there's still loads of unnecessary plastic packaging about but reducing bag usage by around 6 billion bags per year is a good start
This gets on my nerves, they call it progress? recycling the new buzzword... complete ball locks....
when we were kids, juice came in glass bottles, reused and with a returned deposit, milk in glass bottles, reusable... sweets came out of a jar with a wee paper bag, went tae get the messages from the shops we used to take a cardbox home from the shop wie the groceries in it, box was then reused for some other purpose... very few bags then..
etc etc
nothing new there, worked fine, maybe the rose tinted glasses again, but I can't remember the amount of crap lying about then, compared to now.. then everything disposible came along.... seems to be worse than ever...
going backwards not forwards. those in charge need a boot up the erse to Wake up and use common sense again...
rant over, I'm awa back to my non recyclable whisky bottle...
cheers
when we were kids, juice came in glass bottles, reused and with a returned deposit, milk in glass bottles, reusable... sweets came out of a jar with a wee paper bag, went tae get the messages from the shops we used to take a cardbox home from the shop wie the groceries in it, box was then reused for some other purpose... very few bags then..
etc etc
nothing new there, worked fine, maybe the rose tinted glasses again, but I can't remember the amount of crap lying about then, compared to now.. then everything disposible came along.... seems to be worse than ever...
going backwards not forwards. those in charge need a boot up the erse to Wake up and use common sense again...
rant over, I'm awa back to my non recyclable whisky bottle...
cheers
slim_boy_fat
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That's because didn't randomly discard their rubbish all over the place - it's all down to attitude.
brightspark
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were one of the dirtiest country's for dropping litter and crap 
yes plastic was invented, no doubt.. that's the point, I'm not centuries old (only feels that way !).. but I am a half century, and even I can remember there were better ways then.
I don't think anyone would go as far as to say it was perfect then, far from it, and no doubt we've moved forward in so many ways, but something as fundamental as this, it's clear we're not using the resources we have efficiently, no we blatently waste them, sorry I can't see the throwaway culture we live as being the best way of using those resources. on the contrary.
it's not that it's difficult, look at this site alone, how often do we see a thread on somone reusing / adapting or reparing something that everyone else just bins... that's the right mentality, but unfortunately it's the exception, not the rule.
go abroad, and see some of the third world countries, and very little is wasted, simply because they don't have the money, or means of getting the material we do.. so they're forced to recycle more "intelligently"..
anyway, I'll stop ranting on now, seems we're drifting too far away from a simple discussion on plastic bags...
I don't think anyone would go as far as to say it was perfect then, far from it, and no doubt we've moved forward in so many ways, but something as fundamental as this, it's clear we're not using the resources we have efficiently, no we blatently waste them, sorry I can't see the throwaway culture we live as being the best way of using those resources. on the contrary.
it's not that it's difficult, look at this site alone, how often do we see a thread on somone reusing / adapting or reparing something that everyone else just bins... that's the right mentality, but unfortunately it's the exception, not the rule.
go abroad, and see some of the third world countries, and very little is wasted, simply because they don't have the money, or means of getting the material we do.. so they're forced to recycle more "intelligently"..
anyway, I'll stop ranting on now, seems we're drifting too far away from a simple discussion on plastic bags...
slim_boy_fat
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daleyd
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We've had the bag charge in Wales for five years or so now - personally I think it's a good thing.
It makes you think about carrying bags and apart from the very occasional time when I've forgot I haven't paid for one for years. Prior to the charge I would grab a handful at checkout so there must be some environmental benefit in that surely? (We did used to reuse our bags as rubbish bags, nowadays we reuse any packaging that can be used as a bag as a rubbish bag, which previously would have just been binned)
It makes you think about carrying bags and apart from the very occasional time when I've forgot I haven't paid for one for years. Prior to the charge I would grab a handful at checkout so there must be some environmental benefit in that surely? (We did used to reuse our bags as rubbish bags, nowadays we reuse any packaging that can be used as a bag as a rubbish bag, which previously would have just been binned)
