Saturday, August 05, 2006

Slow progress on plastic bags

Guardian Unlimited Business | | Tesco offers carrot to reduce use of plastic carrier bags

Tesco are trying to present themselves as all eco-friendly by this move - but their "biodegradable" bags will still take years to degrade in the landfill sites where they will end up. I really can't see why Tesco in Ireland can say a charge on plastic bags is a great idea, while their English counterpart says they have to continue to offer them free. Ther answer to this problem is so bleeding obvious - charge for plastic bags, and as we have seen in Ireland, use of them will plummet.

8 comments:

kat said...

Last week I saw 3 young ladies making excellent use of the carrier bags. The youth of today obviously know how to re-use or recycle stuff. There they were in the rain, hardly wearing any clothes, but with tesco carrier bags tied round their heads. I should have got the camera out.

I think Tesco try that little bit harder than anyone else. They have always sold the heavy duty life-time bags for 10p but no-one will buy them. They can't really go out on their own and charge for all carriers. If they did, I don't think people would see the reasoning behind it and they would start shopping elsewhere.
(All for the sake of a few pence.) The store can't risk that. All the stores are forced to charge in Ireland - It's the law isn't it? Something similar needs to be introduced here. All the stores could get together and agree to charge but I can't see them doing that. They are all too interested in their profits and beating off the competition.

You should have a go at your MP.

kat said...

You can re-cycle your carrier bags at Tesco. See here

Rob said...

Recycling the bags still requires lots of energy - and anyway, there is some evidence that bags collected in this way end up in landfill too. Just buy a couple of proper shopping bags!

kat said...

But what do you do if you shop online? Everything comes in the carrier bags and they don't wait for you to empty them.

Rob said...

Don't shop online... I think we need to resist the takeover of the retail trade by the big conglomerates. And if we must shop online, couldn't we pressure them to deliver everything in cardboard boxes? Or plastic boxes, that you could return when your next delivery comes.
Mt limited experience with online delivery is that they often substituted stuff, and the substitutes were a) inappropriate and b) more expensive.

kat said...

By shopping online I am saving petrol and therefore the world's resources. I know the delivery still uses fuel but they deliver to a number of different houses in the area. Yes, I am going to ask if they can deliver in a big box.

You don't have to accept the substitutes.

My sister shops online with Asda and if they substitute anything they let you have it at the lower price.

Rob said...

OK Kat - I know you are eco-friendly... I still don't like the fact that the big supermarkets control the food industry. Shop local is my new motto.

kat said...

I think they may be controlling more than the food industry and I can't say I like it either but we seem powerless to resist. One day we will all wake up and realise that the supermarkets have taken over the world. I have this real hate of the way supermarkets sponser schools. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Get out of our schools!
By the way, I don't do all my shopping at the big stores and I do do my bit to keep the local corner shop going.

I really don't think anything will change re the carrier bags until there is a change in the law. People are too busy surviving from day to day to concern themselves with such things.

If asked to name some of the things I find really ugly in this world, the plastic carrier bag would be one of them.