Paying for carrier bags

[luciemule]

Just out of curiosity, would you still carry on using your main supermarket (say Tesco, or Sainsbury's) if they stopped giving you any carrier bags and said you either had to pay for them or use another method (eg -boxes or jute bags).

Would you simply go to a supermarket that didn't charge for them or go with the flow?

Maybe they have stroppy customer (like Soupy).

Thanks for the link, Aefondkiss. We have an Au Naturale in Aberdeen so I may be brave (they play such LOUD music!) and venture in next time I'm home. I picked up a cute fabric-lined string bag in Primark and a printed canvas bag in Asda, both about £1.50 I think, last time I was home so I shall endeavour to make at least one of them my constant companion.

Why do you think I'm a stroppy customer??

There is a co-op near me but I only went in once and it was kind of dirty

And you know how Americans are about their customer service!

oh soupy i remember the refundable deposit on glass bottles. It was like finding a pot of gold, is you came across one that someone had thrown out

Why did you call me stroppy??

Just kidding, Soupy.

Desposits aren't a bad idea, indeed modern laser barcode technology allows credit to be made to your account, making it very cheap.

Actually one could close the cycle better by standardising on bottles the way that the milk industry did.
I reckon that 90% of bottled goods could be easily sold in one of 10 standard sizes.
I believe that most pre-prepared food which currently comes in an almost unrecyclable mix of foil, plastic and paper could come in standard glass trays.

Clear glass is so easily polluted by even a small % of coloured, that often, they give an and just dump them all in the same truck.

But if you recycled whole containers, there would be less waste. Standardisation around fewer basic shapes would mean that equipment to clean and refill them would be a lot cheaper to make.

Wine bottles would be a good start. There is no particular reason for more than 3 or 4 shapes.

Surely with glass you'd simply reuse in the same way as milk bottles. Except for damaged ones. Am I right in thinking that glass is 100% recyclable yet 100% non-biodegradable?

[strop]

That would be a great idea! I used to work in a cake shop and you would get the office people come in, buy two things and want a carrier bag. It's like they weren't capable of carring 2 things at once!

Glass, while technically recycle, mostly ends up in our landfills. And, it's more expensive. I remember when Diet Coke went plastic. I'd welcome a return to glass... but it might not be environmentally friendly.

And I deffo do not want my wine in a plastic bottle -- yuk.

It would be enviromentally friendly if they were returned for reuse/recycling.

I think they should bring in paper bags and have done with plastic altogether

But, did you know...

Most of glass sent for recylcing in the UK is actually thrown in the dump. but true. There is not enough recycling facilities to handle to the quantity they get, so most of it is binned.

Do you think paper are better? I think they are about equal.

I thought they made a bio-degradable paper bag? So if so, yes definately better

Paper itself is better than plastic because paper is biodegradable (well mostly). But, the process of making paper bags actually wastes more energy than the process of making plactic. So they com up about equal. Have you ever been to apaper plant?

here for example.

Can't say I have been to a paper plant! I think with most environmental issues people do tend to focus on the end result ie where stuff ends up as opposed to how it is processed etc. Mainly through ignorance of the facts I suppose and I admit that's the case with me.

I recently bought a Toyota Prius which I love, thinking I was doing a good thing, but apparently not because it's not made in an environmentally friendly way or disposed of either, so it just goes to show that a little knowledge is dangerous as they say!! I think people are trying to do the best they can recycling wise, with the knowledge they're given.

Paper is infintely better than plastic because it is biodegradable. It is possible to offset the environmental cost of the energy used and also to use green enrgy (although I'm not saying the *do, I'm not that naive), it is not possible tooffset the fact that plastic will be with us for pretty much an eternity.

But what about all those chemicals the paper plant dumps into the river and then float downstream? Surely that is not to be overlooked? It isn't just energy consumed that damages the environmant.

Paper would be no good for me as I walk everywhere - paper would disintegrate in the rain.

Get a plastic umbrella.