Green taxes -Plastic bags to be banned ??

Mado

About time too!

When people are chraged for bags, you will suddenly notice that they can remember to bring the thicker plastic /canvas bag with them.

GR, I use proper bags when I go food shopping and there always seems to be enough other bags to line my kitchen bin.

marcais

M&S gave out re-usable bags every time you shopped with them in June and have introduced their own charge for plastic bags.

Shops like Lidl, Aldi & Netto have charged for bags as part of their business model for years.

Still not prepared to accept that this isn't even remotely a ban peter999?

Fifer

marcais wrote: »

M&S gave out re-usable bags every time you shopped with them in June and have introduced their own charge for plastic bags.

I wonder if that's local to your area marcais? Our local M&S's don't charge for carrier bags. We didn't get free re-usable bags either.

marcais

Fifer wrote: »

I wonder if that's local to your area marcais? Our local M&S's don't charge for carrier bags. We didn't get free re-usable bags either.

Turns out it is just a trial here in NI.

Story here.

peter999

marcais wrote: »

Still not prepared to accept that this isn't even remotely a ban peter999?

"...could eventually lead to an outright ban on carrier bags".

Not a ban YET, but who knows what taxes/control could be brought in future.

peter999

Ps: thread title modified, just for you.

magyar

peter999 wrote: »

"...could eventually lead to an outright ban on carrier bags".

Not a ban YET, but who knows what taxes/control could be brought in future.

peter999

Ps: thread title modified, just for you.

I love that... might start a thread with the title

"Gordon Brown... rogering Milliband senseless???"

... after all, they've been seen walking into No.10 together. Who knows what could happen in there!

SnowyOwl_2

As it happens I work in a supermarket and am often rather sickened by the amount of unnecessary plastic bags some people take. Take someone buying flowers - already wrapped, but they need another plastic bag to go over the bottom of them. If they are buying a big pack of toilet rolls they tie a bag onto the handle (what the hell for? - they've clearly gone through checkout and have their receipt in the unlikely event they are challenged). If people are buying wine often as not each bottle gets its own individual bag. Same with boxes of cereal. Lots of people like to put just three or so items in a bag so that they are lighter. It's just waste and more waste as far as I can see. A week's shopping could use up 20 bags, perhaps more. Maybe some of them are for bin liners but by the same token a good few of them will end up as rubbish and put straight into the bin rather than lining it. I rarely see these free plastic bags coming back to be used again.

The interesting thing is that the supermarket where I work is on the border with southern Ireland. Many southerners come along with the mentality that bags are not free, that bags are just rubbish, and they have their own strong reusable bags with them. I get many many comments along the lines of the tax on bags leading to an almost overnight clearing up of the countryside, ie plastic bags on the ground, in hedgerows etc. (Yes, I do get the irony that people will drive from Dublin in their 4x4 with their reusable bags to do a cheaper weekly shop).

The supermarket itself has created a thorn for its own side. There is a "culture" of free bags, they are expected by most customers and are given out like candy. This has gone on for decades. Yet management moan about the price of them - £10,000 per quarter in the store I work in!!! Not exactly free, somebody somewhere is paying for them (suspect its the customer by way of more expensive groceries).

What's wrong with buying a pack of bin liners every now and again anyway? Even they can be reused.

magyar

SnowyOwl wrote: »

Not exactly free, somebody somewhere is paying for them (suspect its the customer by way of more expensive groceries).

Very good point, although I suspect that costs would miraculously stay the same...

peter999

magyar wrote: »

Sorry, I don't have a clue what you're saying there. People still use them because they're free. Supermarkets give them out because all they have to pay is the manufacturing cost (which is miniscule) and not the cleanup cost.

But I would have thought that was obvious...

People use them because they need to carry things.

What cleanup costs ??
The bags are biodegradable.

People are easily misled to think that cutting down on supermarket plastic bags is an actually an important issue & might make a difference.

It's pathetic !!

They are then easily misled to think just adding a small tax is acceptable, when it's justs another way to raise some money for other purposes.

This Green tax money would be raised under false pretences.

peter999

Hereward

peter999 wrote: »

People use them because they need to carry things.

What cleanup costs ??
The bags are biodegradable.

People are easily misled to think that cutting down on supermarket plastic bags is an actually an important issue & might make a difference.

It's pathetic !!

They are then easily misled to think just adding a small tax is acceptable, when it's justs another way to raise some money for other purposes.

This Green tax money would be raised under false pretences.

peter999

Most plastic bags aren't biodegradable (in any sort of short timescale), but I do believe that some Supermarkets are introducing some that are made from vegetable starch that will breakdown relatively quickly. Even these new types are not that great as they still need a lot of energy to produce, even if you only reuse them at home for liners. It's much better to continually re-use the same bag as you get the maximum benefit from the recourses that way.