Should our supermarkets follow the example set by our European neighbours 
and stop giving out free flimsy plastic bags? How quickly could you adapt to taking your own reusable bags?
I reckon fairly quickly, that was the experience in the Republic of Ireland after a levy was introduced on plastic bags, with the proceeds going towards an environmental fund.
As a result of Minister Miliband’s research on this subject, I am disappointed to see that he has taken the soft option by aiming to reduce our use of plastic bags by 25% within two years, with Defra announcing agreement with UK retailers to reach this goal.
From my personal knowledge, this has already been happening, it is nothing new, just repackaged information. How can the Defra press release describe it as “ambitious”? In fact, the Republic of Ireland is the only country which has shown courage and leadership in this direction and has managed to reduce its use of plastic bags by 90%.
The comments on Minister Miliband’s blog are spot-on, repeatedly saying that once again, the government has failed to directly tackle the issue. And that was after he was able to see for himself how successful the Irish solution was. I wish he had had more courage to at least go for a 50% reduction, to demonstrate some conviction to his beliefs.
If a stumbling block is the fact that shoppers like to re-use their plastic bags as bin liners, then let’s ensure that we provide only bio-degradable bin liners. Shouldn’t all our plastic bags be bio-degrable any way? The standard plastic bags are estimated to take between 500-1,000 years to decompose on our landfill sites, we don’t want them there, adding further pollution too.
When visitors from southern Ireland visit the UK, they are appalled at the constant stream of plastic bags given out to them in our stores. Their government discovered that legislation forced consumers to think more about the environment, they have adjusted to it very well.
Now, for the first time since the implementation of the levy in 2002, the RoI is planning to increase the charge to 15p per bag. This follows an increase in plastic bags believed to be caused by increased consumerism.
Would you like to see our supermarkets switch to paper bags instead of plastic or stop giving them out altogether, do you think Defra’s plans for a 25% reduction within two years is “ambitious”? Do you have a solution to this problem?
Update: 6 March. Jeremy Paxman and plastic bags in today’s Guardian.
A switch to paper or other bags is desirable. When I lived in London the local Sainsbury’s offered the choice and the paper bags were actually much better for heavier loads.
Sadly, they cost more so this is one of the few cases where there is a need to regulate the market to achieve an outcome. I guess this is the reason why Sainsbury’s has not rolled out this idea nationwide. The plastic bags need to be priced to include the environmental cost.
I wonder if the biodegradable options you link to have been approved by Brussels for food contact; this is often the fatal hurdle that stops new products.
Maybe the Irish solution is the best one, from all accounts it seems to have worked. I would like a commitment though that taxes would be reduced elsewhere though, rather than just an additional burden.
We are charged for plastic bags here – very little, though, and it doesn’t seem to stop anybody using them. Paper bags are OK if you have a car sitting outside the supermarket, but not much use if you don’t. I need the plastic bags, I’m afraid!
Absolutely, we brought our Super U shopping bags back from France to use here,there is no excuse for bgs cluttering up the countryside
We use heavy duty re-usable bags. They are great and there’s no flim-flam trying to get them open as the yoghurts start falling off of the checkout desk.
Oh, another point; Dad’s should stay with their families. This means less McDonald’s cartons at weekends. There is also less general economic wastage too. Stable families are more environmentally friendly than fragmented ones.
simple really – safe money and shop at Aldi – No free bags there!
Trouble with paper bags is 1] they break and 2] they cut down the forest.
One supermarket here charges for them, and I think that is at least a partial answer to the problem — a serious problem. I think the markets themselves must cease ‘overbagging’ too; using 3 plastic bags when one would suffice.
Ian
I have to admit I used to have a vested interest. I worked in Public Affairs for a High Street Retailer and also worked closely with the British Retail Consortium.
Paper bags are hugely unenvironmentally friendly. I worked for a retailer and worked with the a team who looked at the issue of bags (400 million given out a year at the company I worked for)
Paper bags cost more – and even worse they would add thousands of road miles as they take up a huge amount of space in comparison to plastic bags when transported.
The issue of biodegradable is interesting. Biodegradable ones cannot be recycled. That means if you put one into a recycling point – that plastic is contaminated and cannot be recycled.
It is the same as the plastic coke bottles. You not only need to seperate the top from the bottle but also the little plastic ring that holds the top in place before its opended. How many of us take the time to seperate this?
So should we have non biodegradbale ones – but have better collection so they can be melted down and used again.
You do realise biodegradable only means they fragment into tiny pieces – but they are still in the enviroment.
Again plastic bags are single out as a serious problem. Dispoable nappies which equate for a much bigger proportion of land fill are never discussed yet have a much higher environmental impact.
If we are to tax plastic bags then we should be taxing nappies. I await the headline of the politician who will dare to suggest that.
Talking of nappies: didn’t I read somewhere that disposable nappies are more green than terry reuseables? (due to all the heat and chemicals that go into boil-washing them).
Landfill is certainly a big worry _ isn’t part of the solution to start being more open-minded about burning waste to generate energy? In a country so short of space for landfill, where we need to worry about the possible contamination of the water table, surely this has to be a better option than shipping boatloads of waste halfway around the world?
I heard designer Anya Hindmarch on television last week (okay it was Lorraine Kelly’s GMTV programme) talking about her “I’m not a plastic bag” cotton bag. At £5 it is a great alternative to plastic bags for shopping in supermarkets and on the high street. It is so trendy that it has been sold out. But her website advises they will be available in Sainsbury’s from 25 April. See http://www.anyahindmarch.com/848/849/850/11228/40082/environmental_bags/shopping_bag/tote/i'm_not_a_plastic_bag.aspx
There should not doubt be taxes on sweetie wrappers next – they’re messing up the countryside too. And what about coke cans? – they’re all over the place. We could have a chewing gum tax, and a cigarette tax too. Oh no, wait, we’ve got one of those already.
I think we’ve got enough taxes just at the moment. Conservatives are supposed to have noticed this.
Plastic bags from the Co-op are 100% degradable. Eighteen months from date of manufacture they start to degrade. (Which naturally sets my mind on the track: what if the 18 months is up when I’m using it? Will the bottom fall out of my bag? And other silly questions.)
What Jonathan says about biodegradability and recycling is interesting; I didn’t know that. I have a co-op bag in front of me and it just says ‘dispose of carefully’.
We will need a lot of educating – and maybe that will include paying for bags – before we learn to re-use/use less packaging. The heart is willing but the brain is weak.
I avoid using plastic bags as much as possible. This evening, however, I popped into Sainsburys on the way home for a few things and had to use one. As if to punish me, the bag had a hole in it and a bottle of wine fell through it and smashed. I have learnt my lesson.
On a more serious note, I think our supermarkets should start charging for bags. It would focus peoples minds.
Aha. Good to see E-K on the subject of stable families again. It’s good to have strong beliefs.
I’m on the fence a little with this. I get a little tired of these environmental arguments, especially when I see people, as here, making a good argument that these environmentalists are talking drivel.
A tax on bags seems a very Un-Tory idea, but then again, at one time I’d have said it was Un-Fianna Fail.
I believe the plastic shopping bags should be made degradable. However, I am guilty of using them and not the ‘green’ bags available here. Like others, I use the plastic bags as garbage bags.
I’m a bit with you, there Joe!
I must give a terrible impression here, Joe, but I’m totally laid back in person.
Discarded McDonald’s cartons really annoy me though, so I’d thought I’d tease that one in somehow … then families (I just couldn’t resist). A little while longer and I’d have solved the middle east too. I’m sooo glad the other contributors keep it to topic.
As you will know Tesco is doing there bit by trying to encourage customers to re-use plastic bags…… 1 green point for every bag re-used.
They have also got a range of shopping bags that come very cheap to try and get you away from the plastic bag altogether 🙂
Only ribbing you, E-K.
Though you seem to comment at some very UNfamily values sites…
Ha ha, Joe.
Ya got me there ! I do like the humour, however.
NB,
My comments on these blogs are consistent with what I think here (The Hitch, Ms Smack).
Here in South Australia, targets for the dramatic reduction of plastic bag use were set a few years ago. In reality it is only the big retailers that have taken this on board through the supply of alternative bags. One of the hardwear shops charges enough to discourage the use of plastic bags. The unrealistic target is zero, but in reality setting an unachievable target does get closer to it.
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[…] Banning plastic bags is one of my pet subjects, a topic close to my heart after researching and writing an academic paper on this subject. So I’m delighted to read that China, a great provider of plastic goods, is in fact banning free plastic bags, those horrid, flimsy things that are so thoughtlessly discarded and can be seen clinging to hedges and trees. […]
[…] I was very disappointed that David Miliband, even after visiting Ireland and seeing for himself how successful the ban was, came back and said he would be happy with a 25% reduction of plastic bags in the UK within 2 years, as opposed to the 90% plus reduction which the Irish managed. […]