Thur 3 July is #plasticbagfreeday. How often do you use new plastic bags?

[Deleted User]

I never use supermarket plastic bags, I use bags for life or re-use old bags every time I shop.

My late Mum had a string bag for vegatables and her shopping bag for the rest I have about half a dozen 'bags for life' in my car and use them. I hate the flimsy plastic things, and even worse when you see them washed up on the shore of the local River Medway.

Last week I watched the Tropic of Cancer programme on t.v. and the chap there was showing the amount of plastic rubbish washed ashore in Hawaii on the beach .We're talking hundreds of tonnes of the stuff.No wonder the fish are in short supply, man will kill itself off with plastic rubbish.

Back in the 1950s shopping bags were made from brown paper and cost 2d or 3d.The cheaper one, my late Mum if she bought one (very rare occasion ) was used again and again until it was past redemption, then used to light the fire in the morning.The 3d ones had wooden handles so lasted a lot longer.Very few women in those days stepped out of their homes without a shopping bag as because of rationing you never knew what may be in the local shops from day to day so if you saw something that you could feed your family on it was snapped up very quickly.

I am not all that green, and I don't wear my own knitted shoes,:) but I do think we all have a responsability to leave the land we have in a good condition and not leave plastic bags to mess up the rivers and seas or kill our wildlife.I get very angry about litter and as for fly tippers I would cheerfully hang them up by their grotty little bits over a steaming pile of their own mess for a week Grrr.....

A._Badger

I always use new supermarket plastic bags, I never use bags for life

I strongly recommend you read the following article in Spiked magazine.

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/plastic-bags-harbingers-of-eco-doom/15299#.U7xjo7HLAqQ

[Deleted User]

I never use supermarket plastic bags, I use bags for life or re-use old bags every time I shop.

well I read the above article and I'm sorry but I disagree.To me anything that destroys the landscape whether made of plastic or anything else thats virtually non-biodegradeabble seems a waste.
One of the check-out ladies in my local supermarket said that since they have been using flimsier plastic bags its not actually cut down on them as people tend to double or triple bag stuff now Ho w hard is it to take your own bags to the supermarket.After all you know when you go in you are going to buy something ???so take a bag with you,they are cheap enough to get, I have a collection in the boot of my car and never go for a big shop without taking my bags with me.if I am walking I have my 'dollytrolley' to carry stuff.

A._Badger

I always use new supermarket plastic bags, I never use bags for life

And that's precisely the problem with this debate. Facts no longer matter. Evidence is irrelevant. Anyone with a bee in their bonnet can propose anything and so long as it makes people feel warm and cosy they will believe it is right, quite regardless of the evidence.

[Deleted User]

I never use supermarket plastic bags, I use bags for life or re-use old bags every time I shop.

I feel neither warm or cosy at the fact that mankind is ruining a wonderful world, I feel downright bloody angry. especially about littering and flytipping.I'd prefer not to live in or on a tip thank you, and why normal healthy folk cannot put their rubbish in a bin provided instead of just throwing it on the pavement defeats me.

I live around 3 miles from Chatham in Kent and the shopping centre and High street there is pretty disgusting, with bottles & take-away cartons dumped all over the place.If you must buy a take-away why not take it ALL away including the carton it came in, and not throw it on the pavement afterwards.You only have to go over the river to Strood by the council offices and see what folk have thrown into the river medway ,its washed up on the river bank Why would anyone want to dump a supermarket trolley in a river ??? do they think its biodegradeable ?
I take my DGS to the local Riverside Country Park and ever time we go you see bottle and rubbish and plastic bags washed up along the old Saxon shoreline.It ain't fell out of the sky .Some total animal has decided they can't be bothered to get rid of junk properly and just hurled it into the river.Out on the mud flats of the estuary the local RSPB are always recuing birds that have a variety of stuff trapped either in their throats or wrapped around their necks,permissible ,I don't think so.So no, I am not feeling at all warm or cosy at all.

A._Badger

I always use new supermarket plastic bags, I never use bags for life

JackieO wrote: »

I feel neither warm or cosy at the fact that mankind is ruining a wonderful world, I feel downright bloody angry. especially about littering and flytipping.I'd prefer not to live in or on a tip thank you, and why normal healthy folk cannot put their rubbish in a bin provided instead of just throwing it on the pavement defeats me.
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<Snipped for space>

All very laudable, but really beside the point if we are discussing the idea of banning or charging for plastic carrier bags.

As I said earlier, there are real environmental issues that undoubtedly need tackling. You point to some of them in your post (though I'd suggest people dumping things in rivers is more to do with human nature than the state of modern society - try an archaeological dig sometime!).

In any case, charging for shopping carriers is just gesture politics, as the Australian experience has shown. It does not address the real issues. It just serves to fool people into thinking that 'something is being done' and make them feel better about themselves.