Lack of publicity over England's shops charging 5p a bag

Infidel

Another money making scheme wrapped up as being eco-friendly.

I see nothing is being done about the ridiculous packaging many items come in these days.........

Also, we don't live in the 3rd world, there shouldn't be any need for most of us to continually buy plastic bottled water.

wealdroam

Infidel wrote: »

Also, we don't live in the 3rd world, there shouldn't be any need for most of us to continually buy plastic bottled water.

Quite right. I don't.

A quick question if I may?
What has bottled water got to do with charging for plastic bags?

Kernow666

in the Asda i work in there are sign at every till andbig poster at customer service and the guy with the microphone is making announcements every hour

Nick_C

!!!!!! wrote: »

Complete with audited records going to DEFRA and available to the public about how the collected income was broken down and who it was paid to.

True

!!!!!! wrote: »

So No the retailer can not do what they like with the money. It must be dealt with as per the regulations and will be checked and action taken if they do not follow the regulations.

False

To quote the Guidance

We expect retailers to donate the proceeds of the scheme to good causes, but it is for them to choose what to do, and which causes to support.

And to quote the former junior minister in March

As in Wales and Scotland, we hope—indeed, we expect—that retailers will give the proceeds of the charge to good causes. The Climate Change Act does not give Government the powers to determine what retailers do with the proceeds of the charge, but we will require retailers to report to Government the number of bags they give out, the amount raised by the charge and what they do with the proceeds.

Nick_C

wealdroam wrote: »

Quite right. I don't.

A quick question if I may?
What has bottled water got to do with charging for plastic bags?

I think it illustrates the hypocrisy of paying lip service to environmental issues while not tackling the problem seriously. I am sure many people drive to the supermarket and buy bottled water, taking it home in their bags for life.

Infidel

wealdroam wrote: »

Quite right. I don't.

A quick question if I may?
What has bottled water got to do with charging for plastic bags?

Put simply the powers that be are more or less saying that they are charging for plastic bags in an effort to reduce "plastic waste" - yet an equally as bad problem (if not worse judging by the amount of bottles I see rolling around or floating in water) is the plastic bottle issue.

I am yet to see a sexy Evian like advert for tap water on the big screen. And as I said, nothing seems to be being done about the massive amount of plastic used to package products - when most don't seem to need half as much.

Nick_C

The whole subject of waste is complex. Most people don't understand the issues and even people in the industry disagree on the best solutions.

We a see a lot more plastic packaging than we used to, particularly on food. However, wrapping food in plastic in an absence of oxygen prolongs shelf life and reduces food waste.

I'm all in favour of waste minimisation, reuse and recycling. What annoys me about this legislation is (i) it is authoritarian (ii) the Government are lying, and encouraging people working in shops to lie, by suggesting that none of the money will go to the Government (iii) It is not necessarily environmentally friendly. I always used carrier bags at least twice. Once to carry my shopping and subsequently as a bin liner. I will now have to buy bin liners that will only be used once.

balletshoes

ScarletMarble wrote: »

People in Wales and Scotland are still pinching the shopping baskets. If they are spending like £30+, they have issues with forking out 5p per £7-10. Using that figure as that is what I can fill my bags for life with.

maybe a few people, the same people who pinched shopping baskets before they had to start paying for carrier bags?

You just get used to it, I try to remember to leave my bags for life in the boot of my car when i'm going to Scotland to visit, but its no big deal if I forget and end up paying 5p for a bag, or even 10p for another bag for life.

I'll be digging my strong carrier bags out of my kitchen cupboard and into the boot of my car this week.

Honestly, this is not a big issue to overcome.

JReacher1

Infidel wrote: »

Put simply the powers that be are more or less saying that they are charging for plastic bags in an effort to reduce "plastic waste" - yet an equally as bad problem (if not worse judging by the amount of bottles I see rolling around or floating in water) is the plastic bottle issue.

I am yet to see a sexy Evian like advert for tap water on the big screen. And as I said, nothing seems to be being done about the massive amount of plastic used to package products - when most don't seem to need half as much.

plastic bottles are very easy to recycle and most local councils provide bins for you to recycle them at home.

Plastic carrier bags can be recycled but it is much harder to do and many councils don't offer the facility (you have to take them to special recycling centres).

Therefore Plastic bags are more of an issue as less of them are recycled.

plus you can't do everything at once. Reduce the number of plastic bags then move onto bottles later.

Just because you can't solve the whole problem doesn't mean you should not try to make the problem better!

Nick_C

You think recycling plastic bottles makes everything ok? Again, it's an over simplification of the issues.

Plastic bottles were raised on this thread in relation to people buying bottled water.

Sure. You can recycle plastic bottles. You can load them into a truck and drive them to a processing plant. You'll burn diesel transporting them. You will add to traffic congestion. The processing plant will use energy sending the mixed recycling along miles of conveyor belts, through spinning drums, passing under electro magnets, eddy current separators, and near infra red lights. The plastic bottles will then be loaded back on to those diesel powered trucks and sent back on to the road to be transported for further processing.

And of course at the start of the cycle, the water that went into the clean bottles was transported around the country (or around the world, depending on your preferred brand) from the bottling plant to the distribution centre, then on to the supermarket, then finally to your home. Imagine how much diesel is burned transporting all that water.

But after you've drunk the water you recycle the bottle. So it's all ok.

Of course you could have just turned on the tap