In Defence of the Plastic Bag

The Prius reference was a joke, quite an obvious one.

Aside from the fact that it's blatantly not true (as a TV in standby uses 80% of the energy it uses to be one), your comment about me "posting on the evils..." completley misses the point. Having my computer on is necessary, having a TV on standby is a waste.

To answer Geordie Joe, no, not everyone needs to save money or the planet - but do they need to waste money and resources? Yes, somepeople may not know, although that seems less and less likley, some people may not care, but I would say they are idiots. People do not have better things to think about as they don't need to think about this, they just need to make a simple change that will have no impact on other parts of their life.

jdavtz wrote: »

The 80% thing is a misquote from an American study, available somewhere online (I found it with Google a year or so ago) which basically pointed out that - I'm making up the numbers here but you'll get the gist - if you have a TV on for 2 hours a day at say 100W and standby for 22 hours a day at 8W, then that's say 200W 'in use' and 176W 'on standby' - so 80% "as much energy on standby as turned on".

Hope that clarifies something.

Jonathan.

It certainly makes sense (on those figures it would be 0.2 kwh "on" and 0.176 kwh "off"), but the on Vs off ratio is wrong (IMHO) for 90% of the UK population who (AFAIK) watch far more than 2 hours per day.

MP

What about dog poop bags which are so exspensive. I am greatful for the carrier bags.
Some people dont even use them and leaving poop on the pavement is bad not only on the environment but on the public as well. The government should clamp down more on these culprits first and leave the bags alone.

I always stuff a couple of carrier bags in my pocket when going to the local supermarket. It actually makes things a lot easier for me as I invariably make a bit of a fool of myself at the checkout attempting to open new carrier bags, spending 10-20 seconds trying to find somewhere on the bag I can open it from (I prefer to pick up a discarded bag on the floor if one is available as they tend to be easier to open).

I've been re-using carriers for years-- first for return visits to shops, then when they are no longer capable of carrying a shopping load, as a way to put rubbish in the bin. I have noticed that I have never ever seen anyone else do that in my local Somerfield store when I've been there-- a very small minority have their own bags, but everyone else seems to take new bags. There was even a time a few months ago I remember when a young guy on the checkout thought it was strange that I'd brought my old bags back to use again.

Used properly, "disposable" plastic carrier bags are fine. It is the people who dispose of them after one use that are the problem. Mine generally last at least five trips despite carrying quite heavy loads for a six or seven minute walk, then end their life as what are essentially rubbish-bags that I would otherwise have to buy seperately.

Unfortunately I still seem to be the only person who re-uses bags that I ever see, so some sort of fee is inevitable. Maybe a reward for re-use could be brought in alongside it, so as well as a charge of 5p a bag, the re-use of one of their bags to carry a normal amount of shopping could be rewarded with a 1p discount. Re-use the bag five times (most bags will last at least that many times with normal loads) and the 5p you were charged is recovered meaning you're not out of pocket, and only one-sixth of the number of bags need to be produced.

Rather than ban or charge for carrier bags, why not give an incentive for people to make the most use of them like what I suggest above?