Ban the Plastic Bag

We have been hearing a lot about banning the plastic throwaway bag so often handed out by supermarkets.  At least one of the tabloid newspapers seems to think they are 'leading the way' but then don't the tabloids all jump on to whatever is the current bandwagon to try and increase their popularity?

I am not interested here in the tabloids however, more in the underlying problem of the single use plastic bag.  It cannot be denied that they contribute a lot to our waste stream and thus increase the burden on landfill.  They also get into the environment and cause litter and problems for wildlife.

Part of the problem is how people use the bags, not just the bags themselves. 

When they were freely given out I tended to use them for bin liners in small bins, for bagging other rubbish before putting it in the wheelie bin, for separating laundry when returning from holiday, for storage of out of season clothing etc.  In short I tried to get as much use as possible out of them and in doing so avoided buying other plastic bags to address those needs.

Now I use bags for life for my shopping, which means I need to buy bin liners, bags for storage etc.  See the problem - in my case just a shift of bag type.

You also get the people who do see them as single use bags and just dump them.  Many of those that spoil the environment are probably just thrown away casually without even being placed in a bin which is why they end up in hedgerows, on beaches, etc.  Will the proposed charge for single use bags affect these people? Probably not.

Where a charge has been imposed it is likely to stop responsible people using so many bags - but those bags are the ones less likely to cause problems.

Charging is also a way of increasing the supermarkets profits - we have seen this already with a leading company who by charging for their bags cover all the costs of bag production, previously borne by themselves, and donate only the profits to charity.  Thus they increase their own profits - a fact they are rather quiet about!

Could we ban them altogether and insist shoppers either use reusable bags or boxes.  This is a possibility but I doubt it would go down well.  In the past I have used the trolley liners which did get heavy but you simply lifted them from the trolley to the car and then to the house.  Whoops, you must always take your car shopping!  The best solution which a now defunct supermarket had was plastic crates - they combined this with self scanning at the point of loading your trolley.  Simple checkout procedure but again you needed a car.  Reusing cardboard boxes that the goods arrive at the supermarket in was once used but probably waned as goods became more palletised.

What is the solution - I don't know, perhaps my readers have some ideas.

We must also consider the impact upon industry - if we do succeed in significantly reducing bag usage - will the businesses and their employees who make them be able to redeploy their resources without loss of employment?

One final note - everyone goes on about supermarket bags - what about the vast number of charity collection bags that come through our doors every year?  Most of these are likely to end up in land fill without even being taken out of their (plastic) wrapper.  The solution here is perhaps to just pop a small leaflet through the door inviting people to use their own bag if they have goods to donate.  The leaflet can be recycled as paper and maybe we can even reduce the frequency of these calls on our unwanted goods - frequently I have nothing to donate when a bag comes through (and before you comment - I reuse these as rubbish bags also)