5p for a carrier bag

Is 5p enough?

  • Yeah,just right

    Votes: 30 30.6%
  • No,too much

    Votes: 3 3.1%
  • They should still be free

    Votes: 16 16.3%
  • Not bothered,what's 5p anyway.

    Votes: 8 8.2%
  • I am saving the planet cos i have a bag for life.

    Votes: 41 41.8%

  • Total voters
    98
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Ian H

Ancient randonneur
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.
Plastic is a major pollutant. But I don't agree with the argument that small things don't matter. Small changes can have a cumulative effect, and can also encourage people to think in a different way about their environment.
 

swee'pea99

Squire
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.
All true. One of the good things about the new legislation, though, is not its direct impact - though that will be significant (the Welsh legislation has apparently halved the consumption of bags - that's a lot of plastic) - but the fact that it impinges on peoples' day to day existence in a way that well-meaning messages on the news just don't, keeping environmental issues on peoples' minds, generally. Some will baulk, obviously. But far more others will think twice, every day, not just about carrier bags, but about 'this kind of thing'. Anyway, 'every little helps', yes?
 

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
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.

My cavity wall insulation is made of recycled plastic bottles apparently. I realise that's the least important of The 3 R's but it does show you that it doesn't need to be wasted.
 

mybike

Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
I shall investigate. I actually have to go up to Welling today.

Never heard of anyone going up to Welling before. But then I did live there. :wacko:

Learnt a lot of scientists' names & cycled around a lot of back streets tho'

But wouldn't paper bags get wet in the bin & tear, just like those old paper carrier bags did. Plastic bags were a great advance.
 

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
Never heard of anyone going up to Welling before. But then I did live there. :wacko:

Learnt a lot of scientists' names & cycled around a lot of back streets tho'

But wouldn't paper bags get wet in the bin & tear, just like those old paper carrier bags did. Plastic bags were a great advance.
Depends what you put in them. They are sold as being food bin liners so they occasionally get damp with a coffee filter or teabags etc but not to the point of failure.

Now to find out who Professor Bellegrove was ..... :smile:
 

theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
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.

It's an illustration of how, with the political will, it can be very simple to change people's behaviour on a large scale. Instead of carping about how it's a drop in the ocean, we need to apply the same principle much more widely.
 

mybike

Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
Depends what you put in them. They are sold as being food bin liners so they occasionally get damp with a coffee filter or teabags etc but not to the point of failure.

Now to find out who Professor Bellegrove was ..... :smile:

It was the estate I lived on, bounded by Bellegrove Rd, Westwood Lane & Hook Lane (where the primary school originally was)
 

Drago

Legendary Member
It's an illustration of how, with the political will, it can be very simple to change people's behaviour on a large scale. Instead of carping about how it's a drop in the ocean, we need to apply the same principle much more widely.

Rubbish. Small things add up to little. Major action is required, but both business and government seem reluctant to grip the problem.

A little bit here, a little bit there, hasn't worked when solving the environmental crisis at any point over the last 3 decades. It took major action co-ordinated internationally to address the ozone problem - the near instant wholesale banning of CFCs across much of planet - and it will take similar major, universally supports action to solve the environmental problems.

All we're doing here is cleaning the Windows while ignoring the fact that the rest of the house is on fire.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
Never heard of anyone going up to Welling before. But then I did live there. :wacko:

Learnt a lot of scientists' names & cycled around a lot of back streets tho'

But wouldn't paper bags get wet in the bin & tear, just like those old paper carrier bags did. Plastic bags were a great advance.
I'm down in Deptford, Welling's uphill. BTW, 2 of my grandsprogs are at Hook Lane Primary and another starts next year. And I've cycled all the front, back and sidestreets in Welling. Excepting the A2 this century. I just did a search for bin liners on Welling library website and it recommended a book called Creative Costumes. Perhaps they wear well....
 

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
I'm down in Deptford, Welling's uphill. BTW, 2 of my grandsprogs are at Hook Lane Primary and another starts next year. And I've cycled all the front, back and sidestreets in Welling. Excepting the A2 this century. I just did a search for bin liners on Welling library website and it recommended a book called Creative Costumes. Perhaps they wear well....
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=15400 Here you go. They call them caddy bags.
 
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