Supermarket Plastic bags

[Michael Chare]

The government wants to introduce a charge for plastic bags. I have never seen the point of this, it is not as if I see lots of empty bags lying about or on beaches.

The bags we collect get used at least twice. Once to take goods from the supermarket and once as pedal bin liners.

Where I live the council gives me plastic bags to put my rubbish in. I use two per week, one clear bag for paper etc, and one black bag for general rubbish. I am sure that the amount of plastic in these bags far exceeds that in the supermarket bags.

Do we really need this legislation?

[John Williamson]

No, they're all dumped in the flippin' canal, wrapping themselves round my propeller, leading to an "entertaining" few minutes up to my elbow in freezing cold water disentangling them. Another popular end use is for wrapping up dog s*1t and hanging it on the hedges where people walk their dogs and children. :-/

Good, as long as the bags are disposed of sensibly at the end of life. They can and do kill many animals both on land and in the water when they end up "in the wild".

The difference being that the council bags are all, in theory, collected by the council and disposed of safely or recycled as new ones.

Yes. Although it would be better if the proceeds were collected as a tax and ring fenced for environmental improvement.

Incidentally, paper bags buried a century ago are still intact, as are newspapers, in many dumps, and the new, improved, plastic bags that "biodegrade" in a few months all degrade into tiny plastic spheres which get ingested by plankton and so by other animals that eat the plankton.

[mark]

Plastic bags being made of plastic contain a high % of carbon. So if they end up in landfill or wherever and don't degrade they act as a carbon store. Keeping carbon out of the environment is a good thing isn't it?

mark

[Jethro_uk]

We have 2 collapsible boxes which we carry in the car. Come shop time, we unfold one, put it in trolley, load, unload onto conveyor belt, and reload at the other end.

I can load the box faster than the checkout operator can scan (they have started an *every* item must be scanned regime at Sainsburys). Additionally I have noticed that before, when they would throw stuff down the conveyor as fast as possible in the hope of causing a mini pile up, when I start loading, they deliberately switch the conveyor off.

[bert]

In message , Michael Chare writes

Not here. Our council now accepts these plastic bags for recycling. Had it been introduced 5 or 10 years ago then I would have agreed with it but it's a solution for yesterdays problem

[bert]

Remember the days before bar codes when they had to pick up each item look at the price labels and key in the value?

[Michael Chare]

Alas, you don't see any cardboard boxes at the checkout these days.

[Michael Chare]

The holes they put in the bags have their uses.

[Jethro_uk]

Oh yes ... Saturday job in Sainsburys ;) Although I didn't do tills to0 often. I taught myself where the buttons on the till where, and could enter a price without looking at the keypad. What seemed natural to me was apparently black magic to the till supervisor, especially when they saw how many customers I was doing per hour compared to the permanent staff.

[Jethro_uk]

I see lots of *wine* boxes, but they are of limited use.

[charles]

there were plenty at Cobham Sainsburys this morning, although they are the one that brought in fruit. Most of then others have been replaced by shrink wrap.

[spuorgelgoog]

They tend to be expensive, unless you actually want the wine :-)

Owain

[Bill Wright]

Since this idea was announced I have saved all my bags, and I have economised on my re-use of them. I now have approx 1 trillion. I use them for: Bagging used incontinence products Bagging soiled underwear on its way to the wash or the bin Bagging mass-produced meals for freezing Collecting clothes from hospital patient for washing at home, and the return trip Making up bags of chicken food Storing confidential paperwork until I have a bonfire Collecting scraps of wire etc in the workshop for eventual recycling by Mr Scrapman Sandwiches

Bill

[mark]

Let's hope you don't get your meals and your incontinence products muddled up.

mark

[Tomin Dotsson]

it aint the bags that are the real problem its the excessive plastic packaging round foodstuffs mr kipling for example

[Rick Hughes]

We had the change a couple of years back in Wales .... makes total sense, avoids hundreds of thousands of carrier bags going into landfill.

We just use "Bag for Life" and take them with us to shop.

[Jethro_uk]

The worst are those rigid plastic moulded containers that have been heat- sealed. You get things like strimmer reels in them. They're a menace to open (you need a sharp knife, and hope it doesn't slip). They leave lethally sharp edges (you could cut a throat with one), and they refuse to be reduced in size.

[Broadback]

I am not normally a fan of the Yanks, but why cannot our supermarkets used paper sacks into which you can pack your shopping as they do?

[Tim Streater]

We already do that *without* the legislation.

BTW, is this going to apply to bags used by supermarkets for their on-line shopping deliveries? We get one a month from Sainsbury's and they usually use 10-15 bags - many more than needed actually. That could add a quid to that shop.

Christ - a quid. That's a third more than the Three Bridges grocer used to charge for delivering the whole order in 1950.

[Mike Barnes]

Hopefully not in that order. :-)