plastic bags/rubbish bags

[laurence2]

With the growing waste crisis the goverment are looking at.

1, charging us for plastic bags from supermarkets {5p per back}, believe this is in operation in ireland.

2, Charging for household rubbish per bag { so much for council tax}.

Therefore how will the supermarkets view this, ie loss of profit less spending by customers.

Surely the household rubbish will result in fly-tipping, or is this another excuse to fleece the public again

[lady_p_gold]

Well I would like to know why the supermarkets are still using all those plastic bags .. and all that packaging, they don't seem to be making enough effort to cut it down or use biodegradable stuff.

[laurence2]

Lady p, that was my point in a roundabout way, why us foot the bill

[Gef]

Take your plastic bags back to the supermarket and re-use them. Just put you rubbish in the bin and don't bother with plastic bags.

[joko]

gef - what? do you have a bin outside your house? not everyone has wheely bins, and they have to use bin bags - how else do you get the rubbish out to the binmen?

what you would save by putting rubbish directly in the bin would be cancelled out by having to clean and disinfect the bin more often

laurence, I hardly think people will stop going to the supermarket or watch their spending because they have to spend 5-10p on a carrier bag! many shops have been charging for bags for years

i agree with the fly tipping thing though, and how on earth would this fee be enforced? people will just put stuff outside others houses and shred and identifying papers.

[laurence2]

joko, i said how will supermarkets view this, not that people would stop going their, it won,t effect my shopping but some people do count their pennies

[Lonnie]

We, like most everyone else, at present get the "free" ones from the council, but rarely use them, we buy much stronger ones from the milkman, the council ones are, to quote a prase, 'utter rubbish'.

[Drisgirl]

Just re-use your bags.I bought the bag for life from Tescos years ago for 10p and they replace it every time it becomes worn free of charge.

Black bin bags are different.I would find it unhygenic to put kitchen rubbish in the wheelie bin without a black bag - yuck!

[joko]

you said "loss of profit, less spending by customers"

I said i doubt anyone will buy less because they have to save a few pence for a carrier bag, so there won't be a loss of profit, maybe even a boost to profit, as people will just buy the bags whatever the cost - it will also encourage people to bring their own and reuse which is a good thing

[Goodsoulette]

people seem to be more keen to fly-tip than to spend a little bit of time sorting out there recycling. I recycle everything I can and we end up with 1 black bag a week after that, and even that isnt full.

People are lazy when it comes to rubbish, but then is there really any need for quite so much damned packaging.

[Buenchico]

(3-part post):

While charging for rubbish collection based upon the number of bags might lead to some fly-tipping, I don't think that this would be a particularly serious problem.

Here in Mid-Suffolk, we already have a system rather like this anyway. Our two wheelie bins are emptied on alternate weeks. The large green one is for recyclable materials. If a household has too much recyclable material for the fortnightly collection, excess recyclable waste can be placed in any clear bags. (Clear bin bags typically cost 10p each).

The black bin is for non-recyclable waste and it's only about half the size of the green one. (It holds about two full black bin bags). Any excess waste for the fortnightly collection of non-recyclable rubbish has to go into the council's official orange bags which cost 60p each from the local post office. When the system first came in, some people found themselves buying 5 orange bags (i.e. a cost of �3) every fortnight. When I looked down the road just prior to this Tuesday's fortnightly collection of rubbish, there wasn't an orange bag in sight. The reason? Not, as Laurence2 suggests, a vast increase in fly tipping. Quite simply, everyone around here has learnt about recycling and is now using the system properly.

[Buenchico]

Carrier bags? I plead guilty to using far too many of them. (I'm fairly 'green' with many things but I admit I often forget to take bags with me when I go shopping). I fully support the Irish system, however. The charge there is 15 cents (10p) per bag. Stores are prohibited from absorbing this into their general costs (i.e. the customer who uses 5 carrier bags must be charged 50p more than the customer who brings his own bags). Since the introduction of the scheme, the number of bags used has dropped from 300 million to 23 million, per year (i.e. over 90%).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2205419.stm

Contrary to Laurence2's ideas, the supermarkets in Ireland welcome the introduction of the 'plastax' and don't report any drop in sales. (I'm sure that the same would be true in countries like Bangladesh which has a total ban on plastic carrier bags).

[Buenchico]

Goodsoulette manages to keep his/her non-recyclable household rubbish down to under a bin bag per week (as I do). 'The Interview' programme on BBC World Service last week was with a British environmentalist who kept his non-recyclable waste down to half a carrier bag per month (although I suspect that he didn't actually have any carrier bags to put it in!). It can be done!

Some councils are bringing in fines for people who place recyclable goods in the 'rubbish' bin. All councils who operate a recycling scheme already have the power to fine people who put 'rubbish' in the recycling bin (because just one contaminated bin means that the whole lorry load has to go to a land-fill site at a cost of �350 per lorry-load). While most people have understood the benefits of recycling for many years, it's the introduction of financial penalties which has finally made them realise that we all need to act to protect the environment.

Chris

[Whickerman]

They introduced the plasitc bag charges here in Ireland, and everyone just bought the 'Bags for Life'. The campaign was a huge success.

The refuse charges were also introduced. Folks, you must try stop this before it starts.It started off as a flat �100 fee per year - 5 years ago. The charges here now vary from area to area, but in Wexford it's �400 a year for a wheelie bin sticker, or if you're in a rural area it's �7 for an 'authorised' bin bag - they simply don't collect your rubbish if it's not in them.

That said, it has encouraged recycling, which is no bad thing. The problem is that they now charge you to take your recycling away too...

[caro_]

Whickerman - Im with you on the whole charging thing. I live in one of the most affluent boroughs in England (Solihull) and we still have black bin bags. Sometimes they take the "unauthorised" ones, sometimes they do not. They leave you approx 18 bags for 26 weeks rubbish.

Recycling? Solihull will not enter into plastic bottle recycling as it is "too expensive". They do have recycling centres but they are not emptied often enough. These centres are in village car parks which is fine until you hear that they want to charge you to use the car parks.

Solihull only let you dispose of garden rubbish if you use a green bin bag - they are 15p each I think. They are meant to send a different truck to collect these but frequently forget so what do they do? Throw them in the back of the dust cart!

I have my shopping delivered by either Tesco or Sainsbury as I work full time. Tesco take the bags back for recycling - Sainsbury do not. Allegedy because Solihull Council will not let them have recycling facilities because Tesco have it (They are half a mile away from each other).

Whilst this is going on we have some of the highest Council Tax rates in England.

Help

[searchme]

These comments are sooo selfish!!Why can't our used plastic bags be sent to countries and peoples who have need of them.Any body see David Attenborough amidst the pygmy tribes?

These diminutive folk walk for hours subject to the most enervating,torrential rain,and get absolutely soaking wet though because they don't have any raincoats!!!!.

A little head-hole cut in the bottom of a Morrisons carrier- bag would be all that was needed to provide these tiny people with our equivalent of the pac-a-mac!

Do you lot only think of yersels?-shame on ye!!!

[da_j_armada]

It's their way of encouraging you to bring your own shopping bag so there's less production of plastic because less people use them. They will charge you for using plastic because they know if they charge u for it then you wont buy plastic bags anymore and also you'll use/reuse your own fabric shopping bag instead.