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Plastic Bags. (Yes or No)


Hymer C 9.

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I have been reading the reports on the damage plastic bags, always knew they were horrible things when discarded, but looking at the damage done to wild life by them, I think it is a small price to pay to take a canvas/cotton type bag or bag for life.

 

Is it a good point to phase them out or for convience should they be kept.

Carol.

 

 

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Cost will always come into it Carol, but i,m prepared to pay that little bit extra if it helps get rid of all the plastic waste we have.

Don,t see the point in charging customers for these carrier bags (especially when they then expect you to walk around advertising their stores for free), and far better to spread the cost on whatever they sell instead.

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michele - 2008-02-28 8:18 PM

 

Rob ,

It s called a double sack job . One over yours and one over mine just incase yourn bursts :D :D

 

You just love it dontya :D :D

 

Makes for safer shopping I suppose - but must take away some of the pleasure of the event surely?

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J9withdogs - 2008-02-28 6:24 PM

 

It's an interesting issue, Carol.

 

I always re-use my carrier bags on my kitchen bin rather than buying binbags- but they will end up in landfill either way. *-)

 

That's how we use ours too - as do millions of others - and they do all end up in landfill - but until someone comes along with a bio degradable bin liner for the same price as a Tesco carrier bag not a lot will change?

 

Or a bio degradable Tesco bag for 5p?

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The one question that bugs me because I know I have been guilty of it many times, how many plastic bags have you got stuffed in draws etc that you just don't need, so with these surely recycling has to be the way forward and not just collect plastic bags we don't need, because I know I did just in case. Carol.

 

Ohgranma, our posts crossed and this is a general comment.

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We have various shopping bags and much prefer to use them rather than the shop's carrier bags, I use a National Trust picnic bag for my freezer and chilled bits and bots, and other strong bags for tins etc. Have done for years. Got into the habit when we last went to Ireland as they had already done away with free carrier bags which at the time was a bit of a problem as we hadn't taken many with us for our camper's bin! We rarely take carrier bags from a shop and usually it's only if we end up buying something we weren't expecting to and therefore didn't have our own bags with us - like when we hit Tesco on Tuesday night after being to the Building Society and found loads of reduced bagains! :D
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I hate plastic bags >:-( they cut into your hands! blow about the streets, what did we used to do before supermarkets started giving them away ? I always have a shopping bag with me when out for food and I use trolley bags at the Supermarket! but they will still have to use them in clothes shops wont they? I cant see them foldin up clothes and stuffing them inside your shopping bag (lol) but cutting back is a good thing I think.
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Personal view: ban them all immediately, from all retail outlets across the whole EU.

All of them.

Immediately.

 

From an environmental and energy-wasteful viewpoint they are simply a total disgrace; as well as using up oil as the raw material in their manufacture.

 

 

 

From then on, customers bring own bags/wheelie trolleys etc to the store, or they buy at the checkout the large brown paper (totally and quickly bio-degradeable, and themselves made from recycled paper) bags that you see all over the USA and in many parts of Europe nowadays already.

 

 

 

 

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Just to play the other side of the coin for a minute, the reason millions of plastic bags end up in landfill is because WE put them there, it's not the fault of the supermarkets or shops, it's the consumers.

 

The majority of bags are made of polyethylene, either low or high density, both of which are recyclable.

 

Bio-degradeable plastics are extremely expensive, and I mean 4 to 5 times more expensive than conventionally formed plastics.

 

Manufacturers of packaging materials, usually pvc or pet-a, too often use a co-extruded polymer for their product, This makes it extremely difficult to recycle because you cannot easily mix the polymers used ( they usually have a polyethylene film attached). This however is down to consumer demand and not choice.

 

So before everybody jumps on the "lets ban packaging or lets ban carrier bags" bandwaggon, stop and think about the people you are hoping will lose their jobs if you get your way. In the packaging industry, it's supply and demand, in other words, if shoppers just like most of us on here, insist that their meat comes in trays covered in easy remove film, or the easter eggs are in a nice protective case, then the manufacturers will continue to use them.

There may be a few of you who say you do your bit for the environment, but believe me, you are a tiny minority.

 

The "save the planet brigade" might have some valid points, but overall, they haven't got a clue on their direction. Once they have achieved a result, they move the goalposts. They have campaigned for us all to recycle our household waste more than we used to, that's fine, in our house we separate and clean everything and put it out for "Tidy Trev" as they are called. Then they come along, open the bags up and if there is a paper/card food carton in with the paper, they leave the bag on the street for it to be scattered to the winds all day, then on Friday the bin men come along and everything gets thrown into the general waste. If that carries on I will just say "whats the point" and go back to everything in the bin bag. As will thousands of others.

Councils are being forced to meet EU recycling targets, and are merely juggling figures with very little reduction in landfill tonnage, they claim that by collecting rubbish fortnightly it reduces the amount we throw out, in reality, it increases the amount people are dumping in hedges, lay-bys etc. We then pay increased council tax to combat the problem.

 

Sorry if that was long winded, but the short of it is, WE are to blame for the carrier bag culture, not the supermarkets and shops, they are merely pandering to the desires of their customers.

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Oh the other use of carrier bags!

 

We use reusable bags (mostly) and use the inner bags from cereal boxes or packaging, frozen food bags or the bags that oats come in as waste bin liners. We have a huge 8ft x 4ft "buggery" plastic container burried partly in the ground. (I once got inside and asked Amy to screw on the lid - don`t know why though) It has a screw cap on and many small holes drilled in the bottom and sides. In here we put all garden soft waste and waste food - bannana skins etc. This means no food waste goes in the rubbish bin. Living inside is countless ants, woodlice, worms etc - hence it`s name "the buggery"

 

Also the proud owner of a shopping trolley

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Well, Well, Well. I have heard it all now. Must say you are cetainly doing more than your share, Well Done, I applaud you, I cant imagine why you should want to hop in there though with all the little B*****s.

Poor long suffering Amy, she just doesn,t know WHAT you are going to get

"into" next, She must have the patience of a Saint. Ria.

 

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