In Defence of the Plastic Bag

morg_monster

i couldn't agree more moonrakerz. While yes, of course its not a bad thing if people use reusable bags or rucksacks etc to carry their shopping home in, it is ridiculous to make people feel guilty if they don't. The posh yummy mummy piling her poncey hemp bags into her 4x4 and looking disapprovingly at the "council flat" mum weighed down with 8 tesco bags is probably doing a lot more damage with her lifestyle. There's so many more useful things to crack down on, but like people have said, governments pick the path of least resistance - even if its also the path of least effect! And middle class civilians say "phew, thank god they haven't stopped me using my car to drive the kids half a mile to school" while looking down at anyone who throws a can in the park bin instead of taking it home to recycle.
The decisions that would need to be taken to genuinely reduce energy consumption and environmental damage to the level some people want are massive, no government will ever want to be responsible for such huge edicts, and most if not all people (me included) would not be willing to accept them.
I know people say every little helps, but actually, it doesn't necessarily. If everybody in the whole world stopped using plastic bags we would still be in a whole sh1tload of trouble.

PayPeanuts_2

Nobody is complaining about plastic bottles as no-one is going to go to the supermarket and fill up an old bottle with diet coke. Relatively, it is VERY easy to take an old carrier bag to the supermarket or take a cloth bag or rucksack.

greyteam1959

Just to add my little bit
Have to say I agree with moonrakerz.
Excellent post........
Couple of points.....plastic is a by product ( waste product ?? ) of the petro chemical industry is it not ???
If it was not used to make plastic bags etc it would be burnt off into the atmosphere........
There has been a very good system for recycling milk cartons for years now....its called a GLASS MILK BOTTLE
Now for a point about newspapers........I weighed a Sunday Times last week it weighed 1.65 kilos ( 3.63 lbs ) composed of all sorts of 'junk'.
Now why not limit by law the weight of any newspaper to say 500g ?????
If you dont produce the waste than you dont have to recycle it do you !!!!
Do you think the Daily Mail or the Sunday Times would rather back this campaign or the plastic bag one ????????????
I bet we all know the answer to that one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

moonrakerz

mervyn11 wrote: »

Now for a point about newspapers........I weighed a Sunday Times last week it weighed 1.65 kilos ( 3.63 lbs ) composed of all sorts of 'junk'.
Do you think the Daily Mail or the Sunday Times would rather back this campaign or the plastic bag one ????????????
I bet we all know the answer to that one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not sure about that one ! My Sunday Times comes in TWO plastic bags - and that is before the checkout operator offers me a carrier bag !!!!!

lindseykim13

I love carrier bags long may they survive! But i use them sensibly i only take a bag from a shop if the one i have already is full, it then gets used by myself as a lunch bag, and then a poo bag for my lovley dogs toilet needs. After that yes it does go to the landfill but at least it's not dumped in the sea left in the street etc.
Instead of picking on the carrier bags they should be improving them to make them degradable.
This government should be banning cigs and alchohol that would do more for this country than a carrier bag ban/tax. Have they nothing better to do.

Cardew

lindseykim13 wrote: »

and then a poo bag for my lovley dogs toilet needs.

This government should be banning cigs and alchohol

While the goverment are drawing up a list of things to ban that don't meet with your approval, then how about banning dogs? Or at least banning them from urinating and defecating where the public have access.

geordie_joe

lindseykim13 wrote: »

This government should be banning cigs and alchohol that would do more for this country than a carrier bag ban/tax. Have they nothing better to do.

The USA banned alcohol in the twenties, and look what happened there.

Drugs are banned in this country, but t hasn't stopped them.

unrich

So really the title of the post should be how lazy and thoughtless the public are.

What a bunch of f_e_c_kless, ignorant, short termists can't be bothered to plan to take a bag out when they go shopping.

Worse still when they've finished with their unneeded bags they throw them out. They let them fly around in the wind, get caught in hedges and dissappear into the sea.

I agree, just like guns, 4x4s, machetes, standby mode, uninsulated houses, 24 hour economy its not the actual thing that's thet problem its the ignorant, ill-educated, lazy so-and-so who can't do without it or can't use it without doing damage to the rest of us. I mean we wouldn't need a nanny state if we didn;t all behave like infants.

Thanks for pointing this out.

geordie_joe

While I agree with most of what unrich says, I felt I should point out that every body is different.

Just because someone uses free carrier bags it doesn't mean they are "f_e_c_kless, ignorant, short termists can't be bothered to plan to take a bag out when they go shopping". It just means they are different to us, they believe in different things.

There's no point in putting people down just because they haven't jumped on our band wagon. Some people believe nuclear missiles are more of a threat to the world than carrier bags, and some of them have camped out at US bases for decades in protest of them. Others think saving the rain forests is a better cause. I could go on forever!

When you go to a supermarket you have a choice to use the free bags or not, you don't have the right to insult people who don't make the same choice as you.

Brockyman

I bought some things at B&Q in Lancaster yesterday. I was asked if I needed any bags but said I didn't need them as I had my car with me. He then said that the staff have been told to get rid of as many as possible as they are getting some new ones in. I said that didn't make sense and they should just use the old style until they run out and then use the new ones. I was told that wouldn't work as they are going to charge for the new ones! So in the meantime they are having a push to get rid of the old ones as quickly as possible!! I was speechless, this seems to totally go against current thinking on carrier bags. I should have taken some really as we reuse them as bin liners and it would have been better than them just being wasted.
Ian.