Shoppers In England To Be Charged For Plastic Bags

[winkie]

I keep two IKEA blue bags in my car , makes lidl shopping well easy and keep up in speed , just drop in the bottom of the trolley ,car boot to house.

Can't say that I've heard a single person moan around the bag charge when out shopping , been chargable in Wales since Oct 2011

The ikea bags are good if using a car, from trolley into bag in boot.......heavy bags in hands = less shopping.

[tomandlu]

Can everyone calm down and have a cup of tea. It's not a big deal either way, and will it really kill you to take a few bags shopping with you?

[winkie]

Can everyone calm down and have a cup of tea. It's not a big deal either way, and will it really kill you to take a few bags shopping with you?

The people that forget to take them are generally the people that will be prepared and willing to pay for them....the people that bring them should have 5p deducted from the price of their shopping....only fair.

[happy_renting]

I once put 500,000 carrier bags in landfill because the design printed on them had come out slightly wrong. I always enjoy telling witless morons that keep a folded up bag for life in their pockets about this.

I am a witless moron according to you... at least,. I take compact, sturdy bags when I go shopping. How do I know when to carry a bag? The clue is in the phrase 'go shopping'.

Actually, the witless morons are the wasteful idiots who printed the bags wrong, and then dumped them in landfill.

Is it really beyond people's wit to take a couple of bags in the car? Or carry an empty one to a shop? An ordinary bag is far stronger than the flimsy stuff supermarkets give away too.

The splenetic rants in this thread are hilarious.

Edited September 14, 2013 by happy_renting

[scrappycocco]

How much is he paid anyway? Bloody hell a mindless drone could've thought this up for 5p.

This is the reason we can't afford houses because of overpaid idiots.

[darwin]

Thats not really the point is it....Plastic S**** everywhere is an eyesore and just wastes resources because lazy proles can't be bothered to take any form of guardianship for the planet.

I would of gone further and taxed the wrappings on takeaway c*** as well.

Doesn't matter how much money you have wasting resources is crass.

This

[admann]

This may be the basis of our future economy..

[Lewis Gordon Pugh]

Done this a few time in Halfords. Got to the till, then said to the check out person, i will but this if you dont charge me for a bag. They have always given me a bag for free.

[SpectrumFX]

Done this a few time in Halfords. Got to the till, then said to the check out person, i will but this if you dont charge me for a bag. They have always given me a bag for free.

Not sure how it'll work in England, but in Wales - where (as has been mentiones) a 5p charge has been in place for some time - the shop gets a big fine for not charging for the bag.

What happened here was that most people keep bags im their boot for the main shop.

I mostly carry stuff, put stuff in my pockets or buy a bag.

[workingatthepyramid]

|Great, wtf am i supposed to hang dogshit of trees in now ?

[MartinE]

Another reason to avoid the street.

[MartinE]

...high street that is.

And shop online.

Another nail in the coffin.

[SNACR]

I am a witless moron according to you... at least,. I take compact, sturdy bags when I go shopping. How do I know when to carry a bag? The clue is in the phrase 'go shopping'.

Actually, the witless morons are the wasteful idiots who printed the bags wrong, and then dumped them in landfill.

Is it really beyond people's wit to take a couple of bags in the car? Or carry an empty one to a shop? An ordinary bag is far stronger than the flimsy stuff supermarkets give away too.

The splenetic rants in this thread are hilarious.

Thanks. as usual, I enjoyed that.

[LiveinHope]

...high street that is.

And shop online.

Another nail in the coffin.

No, I disagree. It's one thing that I am sure will have a negligible influence on the high street. I grew up with shopping baskets in the 60's and 70's, which worked fine.

Modbury (a whole town) banned plastic bags in 2007. Still going strong - if people are find themselves doing an impromptu shop they are quite happy to shove stuff in their pockets, including potatoes.

Modbury Carrier Bag Free

On your conscience though

Edited September 14, 2013 by LiveinHope

[okaycuckoo]

This was introduced in Ireland years ago.

The consensus is that it reduced "plastic flowers" in the hedgerows. Don't know if that's true.

On the green front:

The study reports that a canvas bag is expected to last for 52 trips (Table A.3.1). With that as a reference, a cotton/cloth canvas bag user does over twice the damage to the environment that a plastic bag using grocery shopper who throws away every plastic bag they get immediately after each shopping trip, as they will likely have to replace their more environmentally-destructive bag at least once long before they reach 131 uses! However, if a consumer reuses 100% of their conventional HDPE plastic bags (say as trash bags), the number of uses needed for the other bags to have a lesser environmental impact than the conventional HDPE plastic bag rises by a factor of anywhere from 2.2 to 2.5, which we see in the table above. For example, that re-usable canvas bag would need to be used at least 327 times to be less damaging to the environment!

Which makes the eco-friendly canvas bag user over six times as destructive to the environment as the conventional consumer who simply re-uses all the plastic bags they get from the grocery store just once.

http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/paper-plastic-or-cloth-which-bag-is.html

[LiveinHope]

This was introduced in Ireland years ago.

The consensus is that it reduced "plastic flowers" in the hedgerows. Don't know if that's true.

On the green front:

http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/paper-plastic-or-cloth-which-bag-is.html

That green report considers the carbon footprint of alternative bags and general ecotoxicity.

The persistence of HDPE as an environmental problem is not used as a weighting in the analysis as far as i could make out

Edited September 14, 2013 by LiveinHope

[cybernoid]

Thank goodness someone is finally addressing the main problems we are currently struggling with. People in their 30s living at the parental home putting off starting a family watching in despair as help to buy and other schemes stoke the housing bubble further whilst observing the BOE governor stating their intention to keep interest rates low for longer thus making the simple act of borrowing money to buy a modest home like gambling their future on a roulette wheel can rest easy now that finally, the matters on ALL of our minds are finally getting the attention they deserve. Plastic bags. I cant wait to vote for them , I will be running down to the poll booth.

[okaycuckoo]

That green report considers the carbon footprint of alternative bags and general ecotoxicity.

The persistence of HDPE as an environmental problem is not used as a weighting in the analysis as far as i could make out

Yes, worth looking into - but the ratio does at least set off the BS-ometer.

Bogus figures that justify official decrees. Haven't we seen that in the omission of HPI from inflation measures?

[LiveinHope]

Thank goodness someone is finally addressing the main problems we are currently struggling with. People in their 30s living at the parental home putting off starting a family watching in despair as help to buy and other schemes stoke the housing bubble further whilst observing the BOE governor stating their intention to keep interest rates low for longer thus making the simple act of borrowing money to buy a modest home like gambling their future on a roulette wheel can rest easy now that finally, the matters on ALL of our minds are finally getting the attention they deserve. Plastic bags. I cant wait to vote for them , I will be running down to the poll booth.

The banks probably don't have an opinion on plastic bags.

[stormymonday_2011]

That green report considers the carbon footprint of alternative bags and general ecotoxicity.

The persistence of HDPE as an environmental problem is not used as a weighting in the analysis as far as i could make out

I think the report does also consider the long term environmental impact of commercially farmed cotton such as the vast amounts of water extracted to grow it or the tons of pesticides and herbicides used in its production.

Every time someone tries to convince me that cotton clothing is more eco friendly than polyester I always ask them how they reconcile that with the fate of the Aral sea which surely ranks near the top of man made environmental disasters

http://www.wri.org/stories/2008/05/disappearance-aral-sea

Edited September 14, 2013 by stormymonday_2011

[LiveinHope]

I think the report does also consider the long term environmental impact of commercially farmed cotton such as the vast amounts of water extracted to grow it or the tons of pesticides and herbicides used in its production.

Every time someone tries to convince me that cotton clothing is more eco friendly than polyester I always ask them how they reconcile that with the fate of the Aral sea which surely ranks near the top of man made environmental disasters

http://www.wri.org/stories/2008/05/disappearance-aral-sea

free to read, Royal Society, Phil. Trans. Plastics, the Environment and Human Health

Plastics persist for a very long time.

and all lakes are ephemeral

[StainlessSteelCat]

This was introduced in Ireland years ago.

The consensus is that it reduced "plastic flowers" in the hedgerows. Don't know if that's true.

On the green front:

http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/paper-plastic-or-cloth-which-bag-is.html

Of course, you aren't compelled to buy a special pesticide laden cloth bag to shop with. I use a ruck sack made from synthetic materials which is nearly 20 years old, and must have done thousands of shopping and other trips with it by now.

Since I moved to Wales my plastic bag usage has reduced to near zero. Sure, it doesn't make a huge difference in the scheme of things but it does raise everyday awareness of reducing consumption and waste a little. And anyone who's been to certain parts of Africa can see just how much of an eyesore plastic bags can be.

[Mrs Bear]

And anyone who's been to certain parts of Africa can see just how much of an eyesore plastic bags can be.

When we lived in Oman the shops used to dish out pale blue and pink plastic bags, which used to blow around and catch on the scrubby thorn trees. I remember someone saying, 'Ah, I see the bag trees are in flower again!'

[happy_renting]

Done this a few time in Halfords. Got to the till, then said to the check out person, i will but this if you dont charge me for a bag. They have always given me a bag for free.

If you were a really astute negotiator out for the best deal, you wouldn't be shopping in Halfords in the first place.

[billybong]

In the morning.

The proceeds will go to charities involved in clearing up the environmental damage caused by the bags rather than the government or the retailers

Then according to the news on the radio this afternoon/evening.

Afternoon radio news:

They "hope" the proceeds will go to charities.

Evening radio news:

They "hope" the proceeds will go to charities but they can't force the shops to give the money to charities. Northern Ireland and Wales already charge for plastic bags and Scotland is going to introduce a charge in 2014.

Northern Ireland gives the money to charities and in Wales all the money from plastic bag charges goes to the government as tax.

The news changes so much as time goes along. In the morning it's categorical that "the proceeds will go to charities involved in clearing up the environmental damage" but by the evening it's starting to look like a tax for the government coffers.

Edited September 15, 2013 by billybong