Time for the UK to ban plastic bags?

[christoph404]

Originally Posted by Mark O I recall at one time you could pick up some cardboard boxes in most supermarkets to take your goods home in, where are they now?.........maybe supermarket owners think a pile of cardboard boxes looks too untidy, and cardboard is recyclable, most Councils collect from the doorstep. I also think Coffee shops like Starbucks, etc; should give you a 'proper' cup if you're not taking your drink away from the premises, many do, but some still don't........maybe afraid of a bit of washing-up?!!

Considering you have to pay extra to sit in the premises to have your coffee one would think a proper cup would be a small thing to expect! I think it is a washing up issue with Starbucks, I prefer Nero or Costa Coffe in that respect.
Didn't people used to visit the shops with their own shopping bag for groceries? Plastic bags are like a contemporary tumble weed, left to blow about the streets until they are snared on abandoned shopping trolleys. It takes a lot of resources to make plastic and to transport it so a good idea to cut down, at present there is a campaign in London to encourage people not to buy bottled water in plastic containers and for restaurants to supply diners with tap water. I think thats a good idea as it has always been one of my pet hates that when you ask for some water at a restaurant the option is "Still or Sparkling" and any request for tap water is treated with absolute disgust by the waiter! In some places beer is cheaper than water, paying for bottled water is a complete con and waste of resources, the irony being that tap water is better quality anyway as it has to undergo much more stringent safety and purity control than the bottled variety.

[arctic]

Paperbags for 6.5 billion people (and rising) is NOT an option. My guess a years supply of bags of paper for the world consumers would mean a cut down of trees at a rate of 1000 football pitches per day (at least!).
Why not just make good old reusable bags of some sort? Ach....im sure this will sort itself out within a few years

[Marky B]

I use re-usable bags,which you can purchase from Tesco's and Morrison's certainly. I totally agree with the banning of plastic carrier bags,but I think a wider campaign should be launched to rid Britain of the bigger menace of litter in general.
Ta Ta
Marky B

[Harleybloke]

If we're against banning films how come we can ban plastic bags? It's art isn't it................

Look out they'll ban everyfink one day, 4x4s, motorbikes, red meat, chocs, they always know what's best for us.....................

[Moor Larkin]

They should definitely ban British people taking them on holiday. Seeing people heading for a Spanish beach with a Tesco carrier bag full of snorkels is so embarrassing. Nearly as bad as wearing socks with sandals........

Gerrem Off!

[samkydd]

Originally Posted by rskershaw When buying the papers recently I've noticed the Daily Mail has launched a front page campaign to ban plastic carrier bags. Today, Marks & Spencer have announced that they will charge five pence for a plastic bag, but only in its Food Halls. Is it time for other retailers to follow suit? We seem to be behind other European countries in prohibiting the handout of free plastic bags. Southern Ireland in particular stopped the practice some time ago. I believe here in the U.K. that the only Council to ban their use is Brighton and Hove. Any views and/or plastic bags in Brit Films? (poor attempt to make this relevant)

In my childhood I always remember women folk carrying baskets for shopping, or re-usable brown paper carrier bags with string handles and carrier bags made out of string! In Ghana the women carry all their shopping on their heads!

Women today would need a designer label brand reuseable shopping bag, but the amount of shopping loaded into a car from a supermarket trip you'd need several. Why not a reuseable shopping trolley liner which could just be lifted from the trolley with the shopping in it and placed straight into the boot of a 4WD Chelsea tractor?

[Fellwanderer]

Originally Posted by samkydd In my childhood I always remember women folk carrying baskets for shopping, or re-usable brown paper carrier bags with string handles and carrier bags made out of string! In Ghana the women carry all their shopping on their heads! Women today would need a designer label brand reuseable shopping bag, but the amount of shopping loaded into a car from a supermarket trip you'd need several. Why not a reuseable shopping trolley liner which could just be lifted from the trolley with the shopping in it and placed straight into the boot of a 4WD Chelsea tractor?

As it happens, I use a couple very like that which fit nicely as a pair in a shopping trolley.

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by samkydd In my childhood I always remember women folk carrying baskets for shopping, or re-usable brown paper carrier bags with string handles and carrier bags made out of string! In Ghana the women carry all their shopping on their heads! Women today would need a designer label brand reuseable shopping bag, but the amount of shopping loaded into a car from a supermarket trip you'd need several. Why not a reuseable shopping trolley liner which could just be lifted from the trolley with the shopping in it and placed straight into the boot of a 4WD Chelsea tractor?

I keep a couple of collapsible plastic boxes in the car. They fold down to about A0 paper size - complete with handle. They're about the only thing that I ever saw on Tomorrow's World that I then saw offered for sale anywhere

You can take them out of the car and put them in your shopping trolly in the supermarket.

Steve

[arctic]

As long as the shops are making MEGA profits on the bags plastic/paper they have made sure we need to take our stuff home there will be no real change for something new.
Here in Sweden, a larger paperbag with handles costs 2 kronor, a smaller plastic bag of the usual size is 1.50 kronor. Thats 14p for the big ones and 11p for the smaller plastic ones. What the shops pay for them..........hold your breath! is 1.3p for the big paper ones and 0.9p for the plastic ones. Profits??? Nahhhh.....were getting ROBBED BLIND! its over 1000% profit!!! And before you think, 14p? wtf is he moaning about? Multiply this by maybe 200 million large (or more!) paperbags and the same number for the plastic ones..........and thats in Sweden alone!
The shops see the bags, plastic & paper as a major source of income and im NOT just talking about Sweden here, its the same everywhere.
Steve Crooks collapsible bags are prolly the best at the moment. Got something like he has in my car.

[Moor Larkin]

The issue with plastic is if you don't consume it, it keeps on coming because the oil industry regards it as a waste product and if demand drops it will just get cheaper and cheaper and so get wasted more and more for even less useful purposes than carrying your shopping home. They'll use it as transit packaging instead or bury it in the ground.

Plastic is as natural as anything else. It's made of carbon after all.

Celluloid was the first plastic. Imagine if that had never been invented!!
Plastics: An Introduction, overview, and backgrounder from Explain that Stuff!

Carrier bags can be recycled at most local tips. This whole farrago is an absolute nonsense being promoted by the Hate Mail. Will they stop wrapping all their weekend 'papers in the stuff do you think?

[Mark O]

Originally Posted by samkydd In my childhood I always remember women folk carrying baskets for shopping

Me too!........when I was a Kid in the 60's most Housewifes carried Wicker basket bags, I used to carry one myself if I was just popping to the Corner shop for Mam (happy long lost days!)

Haven't seen the Movie for ages, but in the Movie 'Sparrows cant sing' I recall the three characters of Yootha Joyce, Marjorie Lawrence, and Fanny Carby running around in Stilletos and carrying wicker baskets!

anyone have a still to post?!!

[rskershaw]

Originally Posted by samkydd In Ghana the women carry all their shopping on their heads!

Lol.

This is the way forward for us Brits. Visualise the checkout queues with families attempting to balance produce on their heads!

[David Brent]

The one bit of plastic that will NEVER be banned in supermarkets is the credit card.

Surprising how very few people seem to pay cash for their groceries these days.
I always pay in cash but am frustrated by all those long supermarket queues caused by customers making cash withdrawals on top of their grocery purchases and having their credit cards processed.

Dave.

[kelp]

Most of the plastic that causes misery to wildlife comes from shipping. Tons and tons of plastic bags and packaging is jettisoned into the oceans. Yes, it is illegal (I believe?) but certain countries do not oberve the rules. Stop this, and we will all be on the way to a better world.

[Gazza]

Joke is most of these Bag for Life things are made of . . . thicker plastic! They'll get binned at some point.

I can't take this issue seriously until the supermarkets stop selling two lamb chops in rigid plastic the size of a box of tissues.