Say NO to plastic bags

jetskidia

If the shops stop giving out carrier bags I will have to START buying bin liners so nothing will be achieved:rolleyes: apart from the shops will make even more money!!

WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

gromituk

Oh dear - a case of exclamation mark diarrhoea usually means someone isn't thinking too hard. You have to start buying bin liners? So what - you use the same amount of plastic as you always did, and the rest of us, who don't use pedal bin liners or who are so lazy that we already buy them, end up using less plastic.

geordie_joe

gromituk wrote: »

Oh dear - a case of exclamation mark diarrhoea usually means someone isn't thinking too hard.

Then again, it could mean some of us are not thinking hard enough.

gromituk wrote: »

You have to start buying bin liners? So what - you use the same amount of plastic as you always did,

But now you are paying for the plastic you are using. You may be using the same amount of plastic, but your are parting with more money.

gromituk wrote: »

and the rest of us, who don't use pedal bin liners or who are so lazy that we already buy them, end up using less plastic.

Don't you just love the phrase "and the rest of us"? Meant to make the other person think they are the only ones who do that and "the rest of us" are doing something different. Well I've got news for you, many people in the UK have pedal bins, and use liners in them. The savvy people who frequent this board use "free" carrier bags as liners. And we all know that reusing something is better than recycling it. A carrier bag used to carry shopping home then used to line a bin is better than a bin liner only used to line a bin.

gromituk

geordie_joe wrote: »

But now you are paying for the plastic you are using.

Erm, you were all along, subsidised by everything else the supermarket sells. Or are you saying that those of use who take care to use less plastic should pay for the selfish who load up with carrier bags every trip? This board is about being green and ethical, not just about moneysaving.

Don't you just love the phrase "and the rest of us"? Meant to make the other person think they are the only ones who do that and "the rest of us" are doing something different.

Don't you just love the phrase "the savvy people who frequent this board"? Meant to make the other person think they are the only ones who do that and "the savvy people who frequent this board" are doing something different?


:rotfl:

Magentasue

Oooh, this is getting heated. I take the middle road. I use proper shopping bags for all shopping except for a shop every few weeks. I take the carrier bags then for bin liners.

Kitty_jc

I realiase that this thread has been running a while now so I might be repeating myself, but I have a few suggestions/observations.

There really is no need to accept plastic (or paper in the case of Primark these days) bags from shops. There are plenty of reusable alternatives to purchase, however in true money saving fashion, if you already own a sewing machine, you can recycle old clothes/curtains/bedding which you might otherwise throw away or donate charity into a shopping bag.

For those of you who use the kitchen bin argument as a reason for taking plastic bags, there are numerous alternatives - you just have to be a bit creative. For example, there should be no reason for any kind of "wet" waste to be going in the general bin. Food waste can be composted or put into a wormery, however if this really isn't an option, most councils now offer decent recycling schemes where food waste can go in the brown bin (or whatever colour your garden/compost waste bin is).This means that your bin will never really get dirty. But if it does, use recycled bath water or washing up water to sluice it out. Seeing as this is the eco board, you should make sure that any detergent you use (either on yourself in the bath or for washing up) is eco friendly too to further minimise environmental impact.

If your council doesn't offer the option of recycling food waste, you can use waste food packaging to wrap up the food waste before putting it your bin. Have a look at how much food packaging you throw away without reusing it as a bin bag - the liners from cereal boxes, the cereal boxes themselves (if you don't have cardboard recycling facilities of course), the big bag that the smaller bags of crisps come in, tea bag boxes, bread bags, the wrapper from the kitchen or toilet roll (just open it carefully). Basically any packaging which is a bag for the product which came in it. I understand that a cheese wrapper won't take even a days worth of rubbish for some households, but if you just take a few seconds to consider your waste first it isn't difficult and you can cut the use of bin liners. I realise that the outdoor bin maybe some distance from your home, so you won't want to trek every piece of garbage out there, but it's likely that you'll pass it at least once a day so you can just take your food wrapper bundle and dump it.

I guess that we are fortunate because our council recycles most things, and we've found that we only really have a bread bag full of non-recyclable waste each week.

Another thing is dog waste - it is biodegradeable, so shouldn't really be put into a plastic bag for disposal anyway. You can't compost it (although there is debate around that), but you do have alternatives, but some depend on size and number of dogs.

Biodegradeable bags are available: http://www.biodegradablebag.co.uk/prod6.htm and work just like a normal bag, only they will break down along with the Poo.

If, like us, you have multiple dogs, the clean up around the garden wouldn't be practical with small bags. We save the dog food bags (which are mostly paper these days) and put the waste in those.

On the subject of dog food, and in relation to waste, if you feed a good quality food, you need to feed less and get less waste as the dog is able to utilise more of the goodness from the food. Cheap pet food is false economy for this reason. We use Burns, which initially seems an expensive outlay, but we have happy healthy dogs who don't create that much mess and don't cost us money at the vets with skin complaints, bad stomachs/ teeth etc (which are usually symptomatic of poor feeding).

Back to dog poo though - if you only have a small dog, how about scooping the poo and flushing it down the loo? I'm not suggesting flushing just for the dog poo - if, like us, you're trying to save water, the toilet is only flushed when necessary (do I need to go into detail...?!). I.e. liquid waste can wait until there's something that really does need to go, so the dog poo can go too. You can also consider putting it into the man hole cover, but not recommended for any quantity as it will block, but small ones should be fine.

Apologies for both a long post, and much talk of dog poop...but hope I have presented some useful ideas.

geordie_joe

gromituk wrote: »

Erm, you were all along, subsidised by everything else the supermarket sells.

I know that, hence my next sentence which was "You may be using the same amount of plastic, but your are parting with more money." Meaning that you've already parted with money for the "free" carrier bags, so if you stop using them and start buying bin liners then you are using the same amount of plastic but you are also parting with more money.

gromituk wrote: »

Or are you saying that those of use who take care to use less plastic should pay for the selfish who load up with carrier bags every trip?

No, I'm saying it's not very money saving if you stop using something you pay for anyway and start buying something else in it's place.

gromituk wrote: »

This board is about being green and ethical, not just about moneysaving.

My point was about reusing the carrier bags when you need a cheap throw away plastic bag. What's green about buying a bin liner and using once to line your bin when you could use a carrier bag that you have used to bring your shopping home, then used to carry your lunch to work? [/quote]

gromituk wrote: »

Don't you just love the phrase the savvy people who frequent this board? Meant to make the other person think they are the only ones who do that and the savvy people who frequent this board are doing something different?

There's a big difference! The phrase So what - you use the same amount of plastic as you always did, and the rest of us, who don't use pedal bin liners Is clearly meant to imply that only one person uses pedal bin liners "and the rest of us don't Whereas the phrase The savvy people who frequent this board use free carrier bags as liners clearly does not imply that one person doesn't use carrier bags as bin liners and the rest of us do. Not everyone who frequents this board is savvy!

Sledge_2

so...

why does everyone have this big issue with carrier bags?

I've studied peoples responses extensively, and just wondering what people on here think.

economiser

Sledge wrote: »

so...

why does everyone have this big issue with carrier bags?

It's beyond me. Mountains out of molehills. Effect on environment minimal. I am not sure whether the main objection is oil/energy used in manufacture or litter.

Ben84

Sledge wrote: »

so...

why does everyone have this big issue with carrier bags?

I've studied peoples responses extensively, and just wondering what people on here think.

I don't have a big problem with them, despite considering myself reasonably environmentally aware.

Plastic bags have become a big eco-anathema to some people, I have friends who are like "I never, ever use plastic bags!" as if they are single-handedly taking down the entire ecosystem. Even getting quite stressed about me accepting one when out shopping. A bit excessive really. They're such a small mass of plastic, they really don't represent a significant contribution to landfill at all. I normally do use my own bags out of preference (the handles don't fall off), but we all forget sometimes, or would even like a few plastic bags for other uses.

I'm just advocating moderate consumption. Bringing home piles of them and throwing them away is excessive, but collecting a few for other uses seems reasonable.

I mostly use them as bin liners, and I would as other posters have said buy bin liners anyway, so why not have the plastic bags which are much cheaper.