5p for a carrier bag

[DCLane]

I'm one of those that's seen this coming; I've about 1,000 bags in the attic!

 

[Stephenite]

I'm one of those that's seen this coming; I've about 1,000 bags in the attic!

That's your retirement plan, that is.

 

[Ian H]

I've now got used to grabbing a shopping bag when I wander down the High Street. Just like the old days. Plastic bags that don't bio-degrade are long-term pollutants on a huge scale. There are questions about the way the degradable ones rot, apparently just breaking into smaller and smaller non-degradable particles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch

 

[Drago]

Just one cotton picking minute. Supermarkets collect produce from all over the Wold, often grown or create in a less than efficient manner. They then transport it all at great environmental cost to distribution centres. They then belch out more killer particulate pollution delivering it to the stores. Then millions of people create even more pollution by driving their cars to the shop.

Charging 5p a carrier bag to help the environment is like sending Steve McQueen into the Towering Inferno armed only with a glass of eater.

 

[mybike]

like sending Steve McQueen into the Towering Inferno armed only with a glass of eater.

Um, did you mean water.

 

[Drago]

I did! The tiredness got me

 

[threebikesmcginty]

In that France they don't have plastic bags in supermarkets, take your own or tough titty. Typical French but I guess you only turn up without bags the once.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Wales lead the country.

smoking ban in pubs etc years ago

charge for carrier bags now been in for a few years
<snip>

Ireland (as in Eire) has been charging for plastic bags for over a decade now iirc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2205419.stm

 

[summerdays]

Charging 5p a carrier bag to help the environment is like sending Steve McQueen into the Towering Inferno armed only with a glass of eater.

But it stops the customers using it once and then it taking years to decay.

 

[martint235]

The odd thing about it is that I will have to start buying bin liners - even though I almost always shop with a smallish rucksack or pannier, it's virtually impossible to get out of some shops bag-free. So they get used for rubbish. So instead of getting my bin liners for free, I'll have to buy them, and there will be no net savings of plastics.

If you're going to buy bin liners, can't you get paper ones? Bexley council flog them from libraries at a reasonable price. (I just said something about Bexley Council that didn't include the words "stupid", "useless" or "incompetent wastes of oxygen")

 

[martint235]

My biggest bugbear is the little sh*t bags for dogs. They are everywhere in the woods near me, far more unsightly in a natural wood than some dog poo

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

If you're going to buy bin liners, can't you get paper ones? Bexley council flog them from libraries at a reasonable price. (I just said something about Bexley Council that didn't include the words "stupid", "useless" or "incompetent wastes of oxygen")

I shall investigate. I actually have to go up to Welling today.

 

[Over The Hill]

In that France they don't have plastic bags in supermarkets, take your own or tough titty. Typical French but I guess you only turn up without bags the once.

It is so that they can shrug their shoulders at the brits in that annoying way they seem to love.

 

[Drago]

But it stops the customers using it once and then it taking years to decay.

It may discourage them but it doesn't actually stop them.

Taken in isolation it's worthy enough, but taken as a measure against the whole it's a gesture, a sop to the public, while the really serious bulk environmental damage these businesses cause remains unaddressed.

 

[Over The Hill]

Drago makes a good point but taking it further, we seem to just buy stuff that is over packaged and disposable.

Halfords for example used to sell concentrated washer fluid so the 500mil bottle made 20 Litres of fluid. I have one 5litre bottle that has lasted me 10 years by making up my own from concentrate. Now they have stopped selling it and only sell 5 litre bottles that are 95% water (or something like that).
Everyone seems to buy drinks made up in a single use container. Buying bottles of water and fizzy drinks. Then there is the whole culture of just buying cheap crap that then gets thrown away and replaced.
The carrier bag is just the outer layer of a much bigger problem.