to think M & S should have swopped a carrier bag

[scaredoflove]

I was in M & S today, I bought jeans and sweater, a sandwich and packet of crips

I put the food into my handbag and refused the tiny free lime green carrier bag as I didn't need it

The jeans and jumper were put into the biggest dark green plastic bag I have ever seen and the checkout had run out of smaller ones

So I said, just stick it them in a larger lime green food carrier...'oh no, we can't do that, you will have to pay 5p for that carrier'

So they will happily give me a free enormous plastic bag but not a smaller food bag unless I pay for it

Anyone else find that bizarre??

I went to another till and got a small dark green one in the end

and before anyone has a go....I usually have my trolley dolly with me but my car and trolley dolly got taken to the garage this morning unexpectedly

Now I never knew that, JazzHands. I am impressed.

If it's true it's quite interesting.

Johnnie Ball did an experiment once which impressed me greatly when I was young, where a boy wouldn't drink a blue drink, but the boy with the blindfold would and of course it was orange juice. That demonstrated it wonderfully.

We are driven by visual appearances by far to the detriment of other things - we have sacrificed flavour etc for fruit and veg that look homogenous - and of course unbruised by virtue of being packaged to the hilt.

The problem with all this eco-stuff is that so few people are able to do it from a practical/emotional point of view. I really don't know how you get around that.

I am a great believer in giving people incentives to change. For example selling drinks in glass bottles for which you pay a deposit, and can return. Cheap bus fares. Council tax refunds if your bin hardly has anything in it, things like that.

yes, isn't it nitrogen that helps foods last longer? That's why it's mainly plastic

hmm. A friend of mine argues that teh council should b e offering incentives for people cleaning out their tins and jars to be recycled.

I don't think material incentives are always appropriate.

I remember the bottles of corona my gran used to buy - I think they were a 5p refund!

I have scoped out with DH my big idea for refillable fruit juice/milk receptacles in the supermarkets. He pointed out that it would be very complicated

I think, from a perspective of being honest about human nature, that this will all change when the oil starts running out.

Then plastics will suddenly become very expensive, and business and consumers will develop a great interest in recycling/reusing/alternative materials.

Plus of course the cost of transporting it all will go through the roof as well and we will be forced back to buying more local produce.

I would like to think that we could do it off our own bats, but unfortunately I think that convenience is too desirable a commodity for that.

Yes but they're less bossy and school prefectish.

They're also a waste of money

I would love it if everyone started using local green groucers/butchers/bakers. When ever dp and i go to a different town, he always goes into a butchers and buys the local sausages to try them.

Everything nowadays is all the same, no matter where you are in the Country. I would much rather have variety in what i buy rather than walk into supermarket and buy the same perfect looking stuff every week.

I buy all my fruit and veg from my local green grocers, it is lovely. I can't eat supermarket fruit and veg anymore, it might look perfect, but it doesn't taste of anything When your used to buying proper carrots then buy supermarket one, you cannot believe the difference. Last week i was given a free punnet of strawberrys and raspberrys because i have gotten to know them in the green grocers and they always give my dd a free piece of fruit when we go in. Much nicer.

If you can, buy local! Much better for the environment than M&S imported stuff!

Thing is we dither around with plastic bags when what is really needed is something far more dramatic. Like getting rid of all the cars and having super-duper electric public transport instead.

But I suspect that may be a little ambitious

And why do people buy bottled water that has been transported for hundreds of miles? Never really got teh hang of that one...

In South Australia there is a deposit scheme on bottles and cans - if you return them to a deposit centre you used to get 5 cents (now gone up to 10 cents apparently, and been extended to the paper cartons). Let me tell you, you rarely find aluminium cans or plastic bottles ANYWHERE!!!! Some people may throw them out, but there are sections of the community who collect them and will fossick in bins, streets, etc to find them. How much cleaner would the banks of the Thames be if that was in effect in London?????

bottled water is indeed one of the most stupid things

backtobasics the problem is that people wanted supermarkets, they got what they wanted. I shop in a supermarket. They are open long hours, everything is under one roof etc.

People bemoan the loss of small shops and markets but they just don't use them. (Well some people do, obviously, but not enough).

If it's not what the majority of people want then it's just not viable, that's the sad truth.

canvas bags

Yeah i understand where your coming from jazz. I just never understand why the supermarkets preach so hard on environment issues, when they are one of the biggest causes of the damage, mainly through the amount of stuff they sell that's imported from other countries.

Small local food shops usually sell local produce which is better for the environment all round.

Peoples laziness is bad for the environment. It's always fine for someone to go on about, say, 4x4 drivers being selfish because they don't care about the evironment. When really, if that person preaching that shops in a supermarket because it's all under one roof and they are too lazy to walk to several local shops to buy their food, they too don't care a whole lot about the environment either. Anyone who buys imported, out of season fruit, or imported cut flowers aren't helping the environment either.

I think "being green" goes alot further than just the plastic bag.

BacktoBasics, you have a good point there. Here's a conversation I had with the local manager of my co-op:

Him: You have to buy carrier bags now
Me: Since when?
Him: Since we did the shop up
Me: Why?
Him: Because they damage the environment
Me: Well do you ave any paper bags I can compost then?
Him: No, we only sell plastic bags
Me: That's not very ecological, is it?
Him: Well when I went on my holiday to Spain they were floating all over the sea while I was swimming, which is why they damage the environment.
Me: Did you fly to Spain then?
Him: Yes, what's that got to do with it?
Me: Well that's not very environmentall friendly either, is it?

I was then pulled out of the shop by DD who was dying with embarrassment. But do you see my point?

I don't think supermarkets do preach about the environment. They are too busy safeguarding their high profit margins.

Charging for plastic bags is just one thing that supermarkets can do and that money does something to address the environmental issues if it goes to organisations whose job it is to preach and effect changes.

Why then moan at supermarkets about all the other things they could be doing? That will come in time, when more pressure is put upon them.

It's really not hard to take a stash of bags - canvas or not - to the shops.