Say NO to plastic bags

pink_phantom

I remember the good old days when there was lots of lovely big cardboard boxes left over from fruit etc and I could fit all my shopping in just one and then recycle it. Ho hum

vantheman_2

I noticed on BBC world that in Germany during the world cup lots of bottles both plastic/glass and tin cans are being left all over the place. However the neat thing is that whoever picks them up and brings them to a recycling place or back to source gets cash 15cents glass bottles and 5cents for plastic bottles and cans. Why oh why can't be bring this in here? This then puts a value on types of waste and once that is done it means that most people will collect and return. Sounds simple and it also means that glass bottles dont reuire smashing up all the time before being recycled. Also Safeway used to provide plastic green boxes which once purchased you could use every time you shopped and avoided plastic bags. Surely all supermarkets could offer this facility.

Van

Altarf

gromituk wrote:

Enforced charging for bags will reduce their use dramatically, and so the food will get cheaper.

Shops in Ireland are reporting increased numbers of baskets and trolleys stolen, and increased shoplifting as people are using their own bags. You don't have to lose many trolleys or goods to pay for an awful lot of plastic bags.

sandieb wrote:

Why do supermarkets not use big strong paper sacks as in the US?

1- Because plastic bags are cheaper to buy, move and store than paper. 100,000 plastic bags weigh a tonne, but for the same weight you would only get 20,000 paper bags (and American shops frequently 'double bag'). So five to ten times as many deliveries - good for the environment?

2 - Paper bags only works well for customers who only come by car (i.e. Americans) as they have no handles. Otherwise the store has to have both paper and plastic.

gromituk

vantheman wrote:

I noticed on BBC world that in Germany during the world cup lots of bottles both plastic/glass and tin cans are being left all over the place. However the neat thing is that whoever picks them up and brings them to a recycling place or back to source gets cash

Happens in Netherlands and Sweden too, and probably many other places. You're right - it should happen here. It's the closest thing to self-collecting litter there is! The UK is backwards, as usual.

gromituk

Altarf wrote:

Shops in Ireland are reporting increased numbers of baskets and trolleys stolen, and increased shoplifting as people are using their own bags.

It's simple to prevent most trolley theft - have a £1 deposit like Lidl etc does. Our country is littered with abandoned trolleys even though we don't charge for plastic bags. Basket theft? Seems a bit daft. Where is the report of this?

lynzpower

Altarf wrote:

2 - Paper bags only works well for customers who only come by car (i.e. Americans) as they have no handles. Otherwise the store has to have both paper and plastic.

You can get paper bags with handles, a lot of trendy clothes shops and sports shops for a while used them.

Altarf

lynzpower wrote:

You can get paper bags with handles, a lot of trendy clothes shops and sports shops for a while used them.

I know that you can get paper bags with handles, but the American grocery shop paper bags do not have handles due to the fact that groceries, unlike clothes, are heavy. Hence they are only suitable for moving the groceries from the trolley to the car.

Altarf

gromituk wrote:

It's simple to prevent most trolley theft - have a £1 deposit like Lidl etc does. Our country is littered with abandoned trolleys even though we don't charge for plastic bags.

If it is so simple to stop trolley theft why is your town (mine isn't) littered with them. Is it because the sort of person who would steal a trolley is also the sort of person who knows how the get the £1 out or not put £1 in in the first place?

gromituk

Altarf wrote:

If it is so simple to stop trolley theft why is your town (mine isn't) littered with them.

Isn't it? You are lucky where you live. Keep your eyes peeled and I bet you will see them. Volunteer for neighbourhood clear-up schemes and see how many you pull out of the river!

Is it because the sort of person who would steal a trolley is also the sort of person who knows how the get the £1 out or not put £1 in in the first place?

That hardly seems likely. After all, not only is it obvious criminal damage but it requires tools/strength/patience to extract a trolley this way. A few people, of course, would not be daunted, but it must stop most or Lidl etc wouldn't do it.

maryink

If you go to The Real Canadian Superstore (in Canada natch) your bags don't come for free but you can buy a big pastic purple reusable shopping crates and keep them in your trunk (or boot if you prefer . Even better than that is their name which says it all: "Bin Shopping" !

I agree with vantheman: the best way to get people to recycle "trash" is to charge them or make them pay a deposit for it. Deposits on bottles, cans and containers of all sorts have been the norm back home for many decades (all my decades anyway) and many supermarkets now charge for bags too. There is an underground economy of sorts with homeless people living on bottle refunds, which is very sad, but on the other hand you don't see much litter. You can also put loads more stuff in your recycling bag (e.g. glass bottles, yogurt pots, etc. which I can't do here).

Other than Netto, Lidl & Aldi I've never seen this sort of thing done in the UK. Can anyone explain why?