OT carrier bag charge

[News]

In message , Bod writes

About time to reintroduce plastic net bags. They were small enough to keep in a pocket.

[News]

In message , Tim Watts writes

We've had this system for ages and no one notices :-)

Which reminds me of something I read recently. Made me smile.

I (American) was in England again a few weeks ago, mostly in small towns, but here's some of what I noticed:

• Almost everyone is very polite

• The food is generally outstanding

• There are no guns

• There are too many narrow stairs

• Everything is just a little bit different

• The pubs close too early

• The reason they drive on the left is because all their cars are built backwards

• Pubs are not bars, they are community living rooms.

• You'd better like peas, potatoes and sausage

• Refrigerators and washing machines are very small

• Everything is generally older, smaller and shorter

• People don't seem to be afraid of their neighbors or the government

• Their paper money makes sense, the coins don't

• Everyone has a washing machine but driers are rare

• Hot and cold water faucets. Remember them?

• Pants are called "trousers", underwear are "pants" and sweaters are "jumpers"

• The bathroom light is a string hanging from the ceiling

• "Fanny" is a naughty word, as is "shag"

• All the signs are well designed with beautiful typography and written in full sentences with proper grammar.

• There's no dress code

• Doors close by themselves, but they don't always open

• They eat with their forks upside down

• The English are as crazy about their gardens as Americans are about cars

• They don't seem to use facecloths or napkins or maybe they?re just less messy than we are

• The wall outlets all have switches, some don't do anything

• There are hardly any cops or police cars

• 5,000 year ago, someone arranged a lot of rocks all over, but no one is sure why

• When you do see police they seem to be in male & female pairs and often smiling

• Black people are just people: they didn't quite do slavery here

• Everything comes with chips, which are French Fries. You put vinegar on them

• Cookies are "biscuits" and potato chips are "crisps"

• HP sauce is better then catsup

• Obama is considered a hero, Bush is considered an idiot.

• After fish and chips, curry is the most popular food

• The water controls in showers need detailed instructions

• They will boil anything

• Folks don't always lock their bikes

• It's not unusual to see people dressed different and speaking different languages

• Your electronic devices will work fine with just a plug adapter

• Nearly everyone is better educated then we are

• If someone buys you a drink you must do the same

• There are no guns

• Look right, walk left. Again; look right, walk left. You're welcome.

• Avoid British wine and French beer

• It's not that hard to eat with the fork in your left hand with a little practice. If you don't, everyone knows you're an American

• Many of the roads are the size of our sidewalks

• There's no AC

• Instead of turning the heat up, you put on a jumper

• Gas is "petrol", it costs about a gallon and is sold by the liter

• If you speed on a motorway, you get a ticket. Period. Always.

• You don't have to tip, really!

• Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall really are different countries

• Only 14% of Americans have a passport, almost everyone in the UK does

• You pay the price marked on products because the taxes (VAT) are built in

• Walking is the national pastime

• Their TV looks and sounds much better then ours

• They took the street signs down during WWII, but haven't put them all back up yet

• Everyone enjoys a good joke

• There are no guns

• Dogs are very well behaved and welcome everywhere

• There are no window screens

• You can get on a bus and end up in Paris

• Everyone knows more about our history then we do

• Radio is still a big deal. The BBC is quite good

• The newspapers can be awful

• Everything costs the same but our money is worth less so you have to add 50% to the price to figure what you're paying

• Beer comes in large, completely filled, actual pint glasses and the closer the brewery the better the beer

• Butter and eggs aren't refrigerated

• The beer isn't warm, each style is served at the proper temperature

• Cider (alcoholic) is quite good.

• Excess cider consumption can be very painful.

• The universal greeting is "Cheers" (pronounced "cheeahz" unless you are from Cornwall, in which case it's "chairz")

• The money is easy to understand: 1-2-5-10-20-50 pence, £1-£2 coins and £5-£10, etc bills. There are no quarters.

• Their cash makes ours look like Monopoly money

• Cars don't have bumper stickers

• Many doorknobs, buildings and tools are older than America

• By law, there are no crappy, old cars

• When the sign says something was built in 456, they didn't lose the "1"

• Cake is is pudding, ice cream is pudding, anything served for desert is pudding, even pudding

• BBC 4 is NPR

• Everything closes by 1800 (6pm)

• Very few people smoke, those who do often roll their own

• You're defined by your accent

• No one in Cornwall knows what the hell a Cornish Game Hen is

• Football is a religion, religion is a sport

• Europeans dress better then the British, we dress worse

• The trains work: a three minute delay is regrettable

• Drinks don't come with ice

• There are far fewer fat English people

• There are a lot of healthy old folks around participating in life instead of hiding at home watching tv

• If you're over 60, you get free tv and bus and rail passes.

• They don't use Bose anything anywhere

• Displaying your political or religious affiliation is considered very bad taste

• Every pub seems to have a pet drunk

• Their healthcare works, but they still bitch about it

• Cake is one of the major food groups

• Their coffee is mediocre but the tea is wonderful

• There are still no guns

• Towel warmers!

• Cheers

[DJC]

I might not mind the charge for bags much, I am used to being charged for bags when in Italy etc. But I do object to giving money to 'charity'. So perhaps for me the incentive works in a perverse way: I bring my own bag just to avoid there being any involuntary donation to 'charity'.

[Bod]

Then take your own proper shopping bags and you won't have to pay a penny extra. How difficult is that.

[Andy Burns]

Not difficult perhaps, just not part of the habit. I stacked a dozen bags for life onto the passenger seat on Sunday night and only remembered to take one into the shops about half the times so far ...

[Bod]

I bet you'll soon get into the habit of taking more bags in with you once you re-adjust to your new habit.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Tim Watts explained on 07/10/2015 :

Our local Tesco seemed to be giving away a substantially stronger bag on Monday, as an alternative to paying 5p for a thin throw away one.

[whisky-dave]

They are to big and awkward for my pocket.

I lost a sainsbury bag last night, as the train pulled into stratford and the train gave birth to me[1], the bag in my pocket must have caught on something and it stayed on the train, I wasnt; going back for it.

[1] only those that have got in or got off a busy tube train will understand this. (but overground rail passengers might also understand)

[whisky-dave]

wow now there's a good idea. I wonder if I had a car and kept a bicycle in teh boot, would I be able to use the CS2.

[Tim Watts]

Yes - just what is it with the 70 micron thing?

Oh:

"plastic and 70 microns thick or less"

So they can give away heavy bags for free that really will hang around forever, but they have to charge for lightweight biodegradable ones.

[whisky-dave]

So which sort of bags are best enviroment wise. The bags for life don;t las t for life, the last one I had they took back and I assume disposed off I d oubt they bothered reparing it. The gave me a replacement for free.

So is it better to have a lot of bio bags that degrade or a few no bio that dont; degrade.

and remmebr kiddies when they sell you a bag for life they mean trhe life o f the bag, if the handle breaks it;s dead and gets disposed of and you get a new bag, they are NOT magic bags, while they might last a few 1000 years in landfill they are NOT the solution.

[ARW]

It was the bit about charities etc that I agreed with.

Bunch of scrounging gits the big ones.

I do work for a small charity where all volunteers work for free.

I am sure both Bert and myself are smart emough to take our own bags when shopping.

[bert]

The standard supermarket bags are not bio-degradable

[bert]

Have been for quite a few years, but there are occasions when you do just want a bag for one or two items. They then usually get saved and used in the caravan as a bin bag.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Harry Bloomfield used his keyboard to write :

and yesterday, they had started charging 10p for the stronger bags.

[Chris French]

In message , Harry Bloomfield writes

They normally do charge 10p for the stronger 'bag for life' bags.

Presumably the giving them away for a sort of promotion to encourage people to have bags to bring back?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Decided I needed some shopping last night when already out - so no bags with me. Used a handy Tesco local. And was charged (as expected) 5p for a bag. Of very much better quality than the old free ones. So got to wondering if it will degrade as quickly as the old thin ones? If not, it may not be quite as 'green' as it seems. Everyone in this busy Waterloo store seemed to be buying a bag...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not going to be re-usable, then, if covered in blood? Or rather, not by anyone with sense.

[Dave Liquorice]

Yep, was "caught" without a bag 3 times over the weekend twice shopping on the way home and at lunchtime buying a coffee, crisps and sandwich. The last is the bigger PITA as I'd just nipped out to grab it and my car was parked a mile away. No bags where I was working.

10 check/woven plastic shopping bags are winging their way to us as I type, at least couple to be put into each car. Hope they are as good as the half dozen I bought in 2008 that are still in service.