Friday, February 29, 2008

 

So Farewell then, Plastic Bags: You Won't be Missed


Using the turtle picture (right) the Daily Mail yesterday declared itself against plastic bags. Public opinion is a strange beast. At times it seems immovably selfish and conservative- for years the overuse of plastic bags seemed not to cause a ripple of concern, whilst supermarkets in Ireland charging for them virtually changed the culture back to using 'proper' shopping baskets and other cities abroad, like San Francisco got the message. It seems like pressure builds up over time and then, suddenly, a collective epiphany occurs. And in the most unlikely places, like the Daily Mail for instance.

The paper credited with a direct hotline to Middle England, points out that the 13 billion bags handed out each year are both an unnecessary expense and threat to the environment from the point of view of litter, danger to certain animals and the fact that it takes 1000 years for them to biodegrade.

A Press Association release shows that the culture is finally changing, with usage of bags dramatically declining by 8%, 2006-7. With Sainbury's and M & S also getting in on the act, it seems the demise of the bag is nigh. Great news, say I, together with the hope that the next cultural change, gestating slowly and painfully onto the agenda, will be a determination to stop the nation drowning in litter.

Comments:
Another area in which the French are ahead of us. Plastic bags don't seem to have been available in their supermarchés for years. Don't know if this is a central government diktat or a voluntary thing but, from what I know of the French way of governance, I suspect the former..
 
You middle-class fuckers just can't stand the idea of the poor having cheap food, can you?

You are so up your own arses with your anti-Tesco whatever campaigns that you forget that these outlets allow poor people access to cheap food in a way that was never possible when little bastard tyrants controlled filthy fucking corner shops that offered no choice, only high prices.

I am now off to ASDA to do a bit of a buying-in. I'll use as many plassy bags as I can in the process and woe-betide any fucking turtle I happen to come across on my way home.
 
Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Anonymous may have the vocabulary of an open sewer, but he/she/it does have a point.
 
Anon times 2
This kind of stuff gets the blogospere a bad name and I think such tossers do not deserve the comoplimehnt of a sensible reply. I just say 'Bollocks' to you, you brainless twerp!
 
A bit harsh, methinks: wasn't Lovelock saying essentially the same thing in his 'Guardian'interview on Saturday? 'Anon' may not have produced the most graceful summary of this line of argument, but s/he does have a point, which is this: cutting-off the supply of plastic bags in supermarkets will do absolutely nothing to stop the inevitable crisis facing the earth in 40 years or so. We may as well get thinking on how we cope with that event rather than slap ourselves smugly on the back as we stumble up from Mersey Square carrying our shopping in re-cycled whicker baskets.
 
Anon(why do so many people refuse to leave names?) I disagree. It will help solve other problems in that it's an example of successful collective actionand that will encourage more of same. No-one is beinbg 'smug' about anything either, you muppet.
 
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It is the little changes that make the most important changes.
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