# Ban Plastic Bags



## Rosemary (Jan 12, 2008)

*[FONT=&quot]Garrett says shoppers won't suffer as bags go[/FONT]*[FONT=&quot]       January 11, 2008[/FONT]


    [FONT=&quot]THE federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, and front man for the Australian rock group Midnight Oil, says he is confident the phasing out of plastic bags will not disadvantage the public.[/FONT]
  [FONT=&quot]Mr Garrett is working with state governments to formulate a strategy for weaning the country off plastic bags.  It uses 4 billion a year, and Mr Garrett said they were having a serious impact on coastal and marine environments[/FONT]
  [FONT=&quot]Mr Garrett said biodegradable plastic bags were not the answer, with some taking as long as 1000 years to completely break down.[/FONT]
  [FONT=&quot]Clean Up Australia has declared its support for a total ban. [/FONT]

_[FONT=&quot]Peter Garrett has always been an environmentalist and his music and songs reflect this.  I’m certainly quite happy to go without these plastic bags.  We saw pictures on the news the other night of a turtle with a plastic bag hanging from its mouth, the other part was stuck in its throat.  Some people certainly have a lot to be ashamed about.  [/FONT]_

  [FONT=&quot]Garrett says shoppers won't suffer as bags go - National - smh.com.au[/FONT]


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## Overread (Jan 12, 2008)

At last a government plan for the environment that targets the source of a problem!
I hope that this plan proves a success and prompts other govs to follow suit. Its all well and good to tell people to reuse and recycle, but most of the stuff in our bins is usless plastic packaging and bags. We supported shopping without plastic bags for generations so its not impossilbe to go back - and in most cases the bag goes:

from trolly to car -- from car to kitchen -- a total of only a few steps - anyone going longer is probably already using a stronger bag anyway


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## Pyan (Jan 12, 2008)

_*But ...*_according to the scientists, compared to paper grocery bags, plastic grocery bags consume 40 percent less energy, generate 80 percent less solid waste, produce 70 percent fewer atmospheric emissions, and release up to 94 percent fewer waterborne wastes.
Paper and card (32% of the total) and kitchen waste (21% of the            total) are by far the largest fractions of total waste. Plastic bags are also one of the most re-used items that end up as waste.


I think you have to be a bit careful...plastic bags are a nice, easy, _visible_ target, but not the worst environmental hazard we face.


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## Overread (Jan 12, 2008)

true points pyan - but still, have you noticed the reusable bags appearing in Tescos?
I think that if plastic is banned, shop won't move to paper bags - at least the big stores won't. 
but yes the card and paper packaging also needs to be cut down a lot as well!


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## Delvo (Jan 12, 2008)

So we're talking about switching from plastic bags back to paper bags? I preferred the paper myself because it biodegrades and because they hold more stuff so you don't end up using so many, but I thought the real choice at this point would be bags or no bags at all, at least not in the sense of disposable ones they give you at the store. I figured the alternative people would be talking about today would be large thick cloth/canvas "tote bags" that the shopper owns and takes to the store with himself/herself.


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## Pyan (Jan 12, 2008)

A lot of stores in the UK offer what they call _"Bags for Life"_ - you buy one for 10p (20c), but they're a lot stronger than the usual givaway ones.
The clever bit is that when it wears out after lots of re-use, you take it back to the store, and they give you a new one for free, and take the old one back to recycle.

Seems like a good compromise.


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## HoopyFrood (Jan 12, 2008)

I have one of those -- I don't use plastic bags at all now if I can help it. Plus they are a lot better than plastic ones. I have quite a trek from the house to the supermarket and back and plastic literally slices through your hands. So a backpack and one of those cloth bags are much better, and then we also don't have random plastic bags lying around the house or being thrown away.


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## Rosemary (Jan 12, 2008)

Many of our supermarkets are now selling a shopping bag made from some kind of material - cotton maybe, and it's taken on in a big way!

I hope they don't go back to the paper bags, although they were very handy to re-use in the hoover!


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## Pyan (Jan 12, 2008)

Rosemary said:


> although they were very handy to re-use in the hoover!



Heh....but I find the ordinary plastic bags great for the bins in the bedroom, the bathroom and the living room - and I use the new Co-op quick-degrading ones (one year) to line the kitchen scraps bin , so I can just drop the whole lot into the compost bin.


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## Rosemary (Jan 12, 2008)

pyan said:


> Heh....but I find the ordinary plastic bags great for the bins in the bedroom, the bathroom and the living room - and I use the new Co-op quick-degrading ones (one year) to line the kitchen scraps bin , so I can just drop the whole lot into the compost bin.


That's a good idea Pyan!  At the moment I too use the plastic bags to put household rubbish in.  Hang it from a door handle, so no need for a kitchen bin, so at least I don't have to buy bin liners. No garden, so I can't use the scraps as compost though.


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## Pyan (Jan 12, 2008)

Rosemary said:


> Hang it from a door handle, so no need for a kitchen bin,



Wouldn't work here, because nearly all grocery plastic bags have small punched holes around the bottom to avoid the potential suffocation problems for babies and small children. Tend to leave a nasty, drippy mess if you don't put them in a bin as well.....


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## Tillane (Jan 12, 2008)

I do all my grocery shopping online (yep, all of it, kids), and although I still end up being given plastic bags, they're recollected by the driver the following week and reused.  Ergo, very little waste...


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## Nik (Jan 13, 2008)

*Remember String Bags ??*

Back in ~1960, we used to have string bags, with the several advantages that they were made of robust natural fibre, packed *very* small, were machine-washable, generally repairable and, finally, bio-degradeable...

Then *plastic* string bags came in, were all the fashion. They didn't endure, as the first disposable plastic bags arrived...

Um, never mind carrier bags, what about bin-liners ?? Sadly, they are so flimsy that we often put a disposable carrier bag around them to provide handles, to take the weight and corners of kitchen bins' smelly collection...

Must be said that packaging can be extreme...

We've reluctantly replaced our old 'mega-bottle' Sony 'wega' TV with a 'flat' model. After unpacking TV and stand, I've three sacks full of 'rigid white foam', plus enough bi-wall and tri-wall cardboard to bury the recycle bin. The new digital recorder is a different matter. Minus recorder, transit-wrap and bag with remote control, cables and flimsy manual (due 'recycled' paper), the rest of the packing was entirely cardboard, ready to recycle as-is...


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## The Ace (Jan 13, 2008)

I'm never without Albert (my rucksack) and, as a bachelor tend to do small shops as and when required.  It's amazing how many funny looks I get when refusing a carrier, though.


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## Overread (Jan 13, 2008)

rucksacks work really well for shopping trips
though you have to get one with a back support in - otherwise the packet of hardboiled sweets will be sticking in your back for the whole trip back


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## tangaloomababe (Jan 14, 2008)

On the whole I agree that Plastic Bags are a nusiance and detremental to the environment and animal life.  I don't have a problem with them being phased out except................................. on a personal level

* I do use my plastic bags*.

For so many different things around the house.  I store my rags in them, collect doggy and kitty droppings in them, use them for rubbish bags in my bin (I will now have to buy the official garbage plastic bags, is there are difference?) 

I am quite happy to use the recycle bags that the supermarkets sell now and am sure I will overcome my small problems.


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## D_Davis (Jan 15, 2008)

My wife and I started to use canvas bags when we shop.  We just keep a load in the car and take them in when we shop.

I don't know how things are in the UK, but I know that the US and Japan has a really strange fascination with ornate and useless packaging of stuff.  My God, so much of the stuff we buy comes packed in totally wasteful stuff.  It's kind of sick.  No - it's really sick!


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## Pyan (Jan 15, 2008)

D_Davis said:


> so much of the stuff we buy comes packed in totally wasteful stuff.  It's kind of sick.  No - it's really sick!


_Shirts_ get me...folded around cardboard, cardboard and plastic in the collar, little clips on the sleeves, stuck full of pins, weirdly folded with a sleeve at the front, sealed in a plastic bag.....I want to _wear_ it, not admire it as a piece of origami!


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## D_Davis (Jan 15, 2008)

pyan said:


> _Shirts_ get me...folded around cardboard, cardboard and plastic in the collar, little clips on the sleeves, stuck full of pins, weirdly folded with a sleeve at the front, sealed in a plastic bag.....I want to _wear_ it, not admire it as a piece of origami!



Totally!  This **** is out of control.


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## Urien (Jan 15, 2008)

I have decided to save the earth. I have designed a range of clothes out of plastic bags. Virtually indestructable, rain proof, can be hosed down.

Think of the advantages.

No need to buy any more clothes... ever. No need to wash (think of the energy and carbon not emitted).

They're here already let's use them before they waste us.

For my next trick... furniture made out of spent plutonium rods. Glow in the dark tables, never bang your knee again.


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## Overread (Jan 15, 2008)

put me down for an order of those tables!


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## Pyan (Jan 15, 2008)

You may think you're joking, Andrew, but they do already make fleece jackets out of recycled plastic bottles...

recycle-more - Check out the useful plastic recycling statistics and facts on recycle-more


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## tangaloomababe (Jan 16, 2008)

AvP I like the clothing range idea, I mean those plastic bags come in a nice range of colors, so its not like we won't have a choice.  They are a little noisy though, I think the only problem would be if we all went to the cinema in our new plastic clothing line!!!!!!! Worse than those chip packets!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Redtail (Jan 16, 2008)

I take my "green" shopping bags when ever I go out, but what about the packets in packets in packets of food items,(certain biscuits, chips etc) surely this isn't necessary!


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## Quokka (Jan 18, 2008)

I'm quite happy to support a ban on plastic bags but another option is what happened in Ireland a few years ago. They introduced a tax of 15c a bag, not alot extra to your shopping bill but it made people think about whether they needed the bags or not and exactly how many you needed. In the first year they used ~90% less bags which I think exceeded pretty much everyone's expectations.


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## celestia (Jan 18, 2008)

I have a gazillion of the "green" Bags, though I have a lot of the ones that have simpsons on them or other such ones and they are great, when I remember to bring them, I also  have a few of those insulated ones. But I do find the plastic bags handy to uses for rubbish etc. I think they were talking about introducing the tax years ago, but I don't remember hearing any more about it. I think they should keep researching the bags made from the biodegradable cornstarch stuff though.


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## Rosemary (Jan 18, 2008)

andrew.v.spencer said:


> I have decided to save the earth. I have designed a range of clothes out of plastic bags. Virtually indestructable, rain proof, can be hosed down.
> 
> Think of the advantages.
> 
> ...



A little too late Andrew!  I've seen many a fisherman or footy-goer dressed in a large plastic bag that is supposed to be used to put garden rubbish in.     Keeps out the wind andsome of the rain at least!


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## Lith (Jan 18, 2008)

Yeah but it doesn't keep you from smacking your butt on the ground when you slip.  Those things are slicker'n snot!  


And yeah, that's the voice of experience...


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## LyannaWolfBlood (Jan 19, 2008)

We banned plastic bags here a couple of years back and it's made a huge difference with very little inconvenience. There's noticeably less plastic floating around the countryside and more people are using cloth or reusable bags. The paper bags shops use work just as well - unless it's raining! - and it's encouraged a better attitude to recycling in general.

So yeah, why not do it? It's easy to do, doesn't cause much inconvenience and actually works.


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## Rosemary (Jan 19, 2008)

LyannaWolfBlood said:


> We banned plastic bags here a couple of years back and it's made a huge difference with very little inconvenience. There's noticeably less plastic floating around the countryside and more people are using cloth or reusable bags. The paper bags shops use work just as well - unless it's raining! - and it's encouraged a better attitude to recycling in general.
> 
> So yeah, why not do it? It's easy to do, doesn't cause much inconvenience and actually works.


I don't think there will be much opposition Lyanna.  As for me, I guess I shall use old newspaper to wrap household rubbish in and try and stay away from bin liners.  That certainly won't be a problem for me at least.


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## judge_mel (Jan 21, 2008)

Here in Canada, many of the discount supermarkets pile up their produce boxes at the cash registers for people to use as an alternative to plastic bags.  As such, I barely use either paper bags or plastic bags.  This takes the principle of  reduce,  reuse, recycle to the  highest point I've seen so far.

Once all retailers take this road, we will reduce the garbage level considerably.


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