to think Nigeria has the right idea on plastic bags

[DonkeyHohtay]

Proposal to ban them. Any retailer providing plastic bags faces up to 3 years in prison, £1000 fine, or both.

saharareporters.com/2019/05/24/vote-plastic-ban-nigeria-chinedu-asadu

None of this messing about with "oh please don't use plastic bags, we'll have to charge you 5p" nonsense. Outright ban. (assuming this applies to single use plastic bags, not the durable woven ones).

What a great idea.

There is v little in Nigerian law to commend itself but this is taking a positive stand

love that the Philippians (i believe correct me if wrong) is sending back shipping containers of garbage back to Canada.

Malaysia, and a lot is coming back to the UK, too. Although I imagine that if they are legally contracted to take it; we won't want it back.

Paper bags are thought to be even more damaging than plastic, all things considered.

It's fine to say we don't need bags at all, often, but society moves slowly and introducing paper bags as a replacement for plastic could lead to worst problems. I'd advocate an education on using less bags first.

So because there's a lot more going on in terms of single use plastics we should just shrug our shoulders about carrier bags and crack on using them and chucking them in rivers and so on?

But that's conflating two entirely separate issues. I don't see any issues with having a few good strong plastic bags that I take with me to the supermarket and use time and time again until they're destroyed.

Once that happens, I take them back for a replacement (if it's a shop that offer that, but they seem to be stopping it now) or, otherwise, I safely dispose of them in my household bin.

Using something is completely different from irresponsibly throwing it away.

Where I live plastic bags have been banned. If you want a bag it is paper and costs you money. Most people just bring their reusable bags. Now it seems normal to me to bring a cloth bag in my handbag wherever I go. I think it is great. Too much plastic in the world.
They do still have plastic produce bags in the grocery stores for your apples, etc., but I don't bother using them. Just put them into my cart or basket. You can actually buy little produce cloth bags. I have those and use them sometimes.
This all takes some getting used to but now it just feels normal!

I saw something recently about using old plastic bags and bottles as bricks. That sounds a brilliant idea to me.

Joe Public isn't going to the slammer for having a plastic bag. Owning one won't be a crime. Using one won't be a crime.

Giving them out with purchases in a shop, or even charging customers for them in a shop will be a crime. Don't have a problem with that at all.

It doesn't matter in terms of my reply though. Prison for plastic bag use is utterly ridiculous.

I saw something recently about using old plastic bags and bottles as bricks. That sounds a brilliant idea to me

My kids' school are doing this. You basically cram as much plastic packaging into a 2 litres drinks bottle as you can. Soft packaging - things like crisp packets, sweetie wrappers, film, the bags you buy frozen chips in, all the sort of thing. It's amazing how much you can compress into a bottle.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecobricks

It's a good way of dealing with plastic waste you can't recycle, but isn't dealing with the root problem of producing too much single use plastic.

You don't really need bags for your veg at all. We do "scan and go" so just plonk 5 onions or whatever on the scales, scan the paper label and put the loose onions straight into the reusable bag.

I always take onions loose as they're pretty sturdy, but anything smaller or more delicate - fruit, basically - would need a bag. Particularly if we went really old-school and sold fruit by weight instead of having everything in plastic punnets. I'm sure it could work, you'd just need paper bags and self-service scales which print a price sticker, same as they have behind the cheese counter.

I reckon if someone like Waitrose led the charge on this it'd go down a storm. They could at least trial it in a few Naice London Branches to work out the kinks.

@Kazzyhoward. Tesco still do at my local one, loads of people just walk past them though

They need to increase the price or ban outright.
It is 79 cent per bag in Ireland, dealz/pound stretcher only sell material ones for 1.50. I rarely forget my reusable bags, I begrudge spending a few euro to carry my shopping home.

Why don't they wash recycling waste at the plant. Surely it is the same amount of water if each household rinsed.

Why don't they wash recycling waste at the plant. Surely it is the same amount of water if each household rinsed.

Because it costs them money to sort and clean the waste, thus making the business of recycling less economically viable. Recycling companies (even social companies) don’t do it for free, they still have to meet their economic bottom line.

Why? Seems pointless

There would be a lot less contaminated waste if they washed it, rather than depending on the household to rinse.
I bet most people don't bother rinsing. I think it could save money and waste long-term by rinsing it at the recycling plant.

Jaffa - I was in Rwanda in 2008 and plastic carrier bags were banned at that time. I took a rucksack and coth bags with me. I think you were allowed thin plastic bags for herbs spices and small veg.

globalnews.ca/news/5150307/newfoundland-ban-plastic-bags/

Same in Labrador in Canada

Whoever it was that said that when they were young bins had no liners: true, but bins were also collected weekly. I don’t want loose cat litter, food waste etc sitting festering in my bin for 2 weeks.
And no, before someone rebuts, our council doesn’t collect food waste and our garden isn’t large enough to warrant (or accommodate) a compost heap.

I don't think bins were unlined when 'we' were young. Before the change from normal dustbins to wheelie bins, they were lined with a black bin liner, and yes they were emptied weekly, and the council would provide the bin bags.

Sustainable living is about everyone doing it imperfectly, not about a few people doing it perfectly

I really like this statement.

We're really making a conscious effort to make changes where possible. Where it isn't possible I'm doing as much as I can to reduce the impact.

How does banning plastic supermarket bags square with allowing black plastic bin bags, though? (in the UK, at least - I don't know how they do it in Nigeria and other countries).

Surely, if plastic bags are all inherently evil, we will need something different for our bins? or should we just forego bin liners and empty our sloppy rubbish and bin juice straight into the wheelie bin as it is? It could work, but would be rank and very stinky. I still maintain that responsible use (and re-use where possible) and responsible disposal are they realistic solution to this, rather than just outright banning one of the major modern materials of life.

We definitely need to also hold the big companies responsible too, and not (like with paying tax), just leave it to individuals to bear the load. So much fruit packed in unnecessary plastic bags - even bananas, which come with nature's own organic sealed packaging, anyway! As for adding those ridiculous little trays as well; whatever they're made of, it's still wanton profligacy - it's the supermarket equivalent of a billionaire lighting the fire with twenty pound notes. Egg boxes, absolutely - but apples and potatoes? Really???

Although, with egg boxes, it would be the easiest thing in the world to provide them loose for customers to pick and then the same egg boxes could be brought back and re-used time and time again. Our Morrisons (and presumably many/most of them do) sells loose eggs from a local farm, but they have a massive stack of boxes for you to fill and take with you, with no notice asking you to save and bring them back for next time.

Maybe they could have new boxes available if you didn't bring one, but they'd cost you an extra 50p each. Unless eggs break and make a mess, egg boxes don't get dirty at all and could be re-used 100s of time each - it's utter lunacy that we don't automatically do that.

Not forgetting, of course, that if we scrapped bin bags and just poured rubbish straight into the wheelie bin, people would then be able to make use of every inch of the bin and cram another 10-25% in to be sent straight to landfill.