5p bags

[robgul]

AND what about the other major blights on our landscape ... plastic bottles and drink cans?    Perhaps we'll have what is seen in New York and other places - tramps with a supermarket cart collecting empties for which they receive a few cents at the recyling centre (part funded I understand by the local authority as an investment in litter reduction)

Germany does something similar, too. The €1.15 you pay, say, for a 500ml bottle of Coke includes a 15c deposit. Then you take them to the supermarket, scan the barcodes on the bottles as you put them in the recycling bin, and the machine gives you a receipt to get the deposits back as a discount on your shopping.

(As I'm only there for a day or two and don't go anywhere near a supermarket, I leave mine on a colleague's desk who takes them with hers.)

I'd like to see something similar here.

... just the same as back in the 1950s/early 60s when everything was in glass bottles (beer, Tizer, Corona lemonade, Irn Bru etc) - a very disciplined approach to taking the bottles back to get the deposit refunded (a source of extra pocket money for me  ) - although in reality the massive growth in volumes would make it a bit of a nightmare for the retailer to handle the money and the storage of bottles awaiting collection.

Rob

[robgul]

It's pretty awful in the UK, outside of the developing world, litter here is probably the worst I've seen. I don't know if other places clean it up or we just uniquely don't give a shit. It's all pretty much the same types of rubbish: chocolate wrappers, crisp bags, bottles and cans, junk food packaging, and the carriers bags it probably came in.

Edit, I'm tempted to write to the school tbh and tell them to sponsor a weekly clean up. Probably against the kids' human rights or something.

.... there's a bit of a country lane on one of our regular ride routes, miles from anywhere at Gaydon/Kineton, that must be at the optimum distance for the cooling and final consumption of McDonalds coffee - the verge is always knee-deep in cardboard cups .... I must measure how far it is from Banbury as that must the culprit.

Rob

[Martin]

I like to be subversive with my reusable bags- I take the Lidl ones to Waitrose and the Waitrose ones to Lidl...

I've got a Safeway big re-useable bag from Canada, I don't suppose anybody notices that they haven't existed in the UK for several years though

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I use Onya reusable bags for my going-to-the-shops shopping. For online deliveries, I request delivery with bags, and then use the plastic bags for lining bins.

[Mr Larrington]

Mr Sainsbury's House of Toothy Comestibles used to sell you solid plastic crates-with-handles, which could be fitted neatly into special trolleys, but no-one except Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) seems to use them any more (and he only does when Dr Larrington or me is available to drive him to the horriblemarket).

[mattc]

Big rise in fly tipping around Birmingham this year, as a direct result of the council charging for green waste collections.  This has caused enormous queueueueueueueus for the council waste sites, to the point where they've had to deploy barriers to contain the resulting traffic jams.

As a result, it's not just green waste that's being fly-tipped.  Indeed, much of the green waste is being burnt, with varying degrees of competence.

https://consultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk/consult.ti/HWRCstrategy/consultationHome   

[Martin]

Mr Sainsbury's House of Toothy Comestibles used to sell you solid plastic crates-with-handles, which could be fitted neatly into special trolleys, but no-one except Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) seems to use them any more (and he only does when Dr Larrington or me is available to drive him to the horriblemarket).

I've got one of them! it's full of old carrier bags....

occasionally gets used to transport food to my AUK events

[hellymedic]

Mr Sainsbury's House of Toothy Comestibles used to sell you solid plastic crates-with-handles, which could be fitted neatly into special trolleys, but no-one except Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) seems to use them any more (and he only does when Dr Larrington or me is available to drive him to the horriblemarket).

I've got one of them! it's full of old carrier bags....

occasionally gets used to transport food to my AUK events

I wish they'd start selling something like that online now!

[Torslanda]

Our reusable bags come from Carrefour, Le Clerc, Super U, etc. We stock up on our French (and occasional Dutch) expeditions.

Mrs Torslanda (of the horned helmet and heavy metal breastplate) usually contrives to 'forget' to take any shopping bags with us and buys on average 8 to 10 in the course of a fortnight. Plain vanilla supermarket bags are €0.80 - €1.50 and 'town branded'* around €2 - €2.50

More than reasonable value given they do ours and her dad's shopping and last the full year before being switched to recycling duties.


*Usually seaside or historic towns. We have currently Rocomadour, St Jean de Monts, Houlgate and others...

[Cudzoziemiec]

I like to be subversive with my reusable bags- I take the Lidl ones to Waitrose and the Waitrose ones to Lidl...

Reinforcing the role of those two as the cannonical YACF supermarkets.

[David Martin]

Several years ago, I read of a Polish bloke who toured to the northernmost point of Norway. Because he was a) unemployed b) from one of Europe's cheaper, lower-income countries c) in one of the most expensive countries, he was pretty skint. So he financed himself by collecting soft drink cans which you can then feed into machines for 1 kronor per tin. Apparently he was able to get by quite well like this. So clearly if you're as rich as a Norwegian, deposits on cans don't stop you chucking them out the car window.

When I was a scout leader in Norway our troop used to pick up after events. Usually about 20-30 quids worth of deposits could be gained from the bottles and crates.

[David Martin]

Beach rubbish collection surveys in Scotland have shown a massive reduction in carrier bag waste. Despite the naysayers, it has had a significant effect on plastic waste and is a good thing. Obviously there is more to do, but it is a good step in the right direction.

[ian]

I'm not saying it's a bad thing – long overdue – just expressing some sadness that it's takes a 5p fee to change people's behaviour and stop them doing something that ought to be self-evidently bad. It wouldn't cross my mind to litter. I hate bloody wading through the stuff and it does depress how selfish and thoughtless so many people are. Bring back the bloody deposits on bottles and cans too.

[Chris S]

I doubt it'll change the behaviour that leads to the litter I see. That's mostly jettisoned from vehicles into hedgerows. No bags involved.

[hellymedic]

I doubt it'll change the behaviour that leads to the litter I see. That's mostly jettisoned from vehicles into hedgerows. No bags involved.

I suspect stuff thrown out of cars is less likely to be bagged now.
Some motoring litter louts did gather all their trash in a bag that they then jettisoned.

[Feline]

I regret giving the Ocado driver a massive stash of bags for recycling the other week now. If I had waited until next week I could have got 5p each for them! They will even pay you for other stores carrier bags now.

[Polar Bear]

We have a number of cotton shopping bags which we have collected and used over more than 10 years.     However, somehow we still manage to accumulate plastic bags which is quite surprising really. 

I wonder if a similar policy could be introduced to reduce the number of bloody cars in circulation!   

[Basil]

I can't believe the rubbish I'm hearing in the media.  Journos and editors seem desperate to invent looming chaos in England today.  Apparently, even though the rest of the UK have managed to get it completely, the poor English are going to be totally confused.
The Toady programming on R4 cites the fact that if you buy fresh meat or fish, it will be bagged as usual and there will be no charge, but should you then add a can of beans (they suggest) you must pay.
What?   Who the hell would push a can of beans into a bag of fresh mince or haddock?

The new regulations in England will be confusing - if you are a complete idiot.

[ian]

Didn't the EU ban vacuum cleaners or somesuch a while ago? I think the universe actually ended then. This is just last stray firings of our neurons as the cosmic void sucks the remaining meat off our bones.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I can't believe the rubbish I'm hearing in the media.  Journos and editors seem desperate to invent looming chaos in England today.  Apparently, even though the rest of the UK have managed to get it completely, the poor English are going to be totally confused.
The Toady programming on R4 cites the fact that if you buy fresh meat or fish, it will be bagged as usual and there will be no charge, but should you then add a can of beans (they suggest) you must pay.
What?   Who the hell would push a can of beans into a bag of fresh mince or haddock?

The new regulations in England will be confusing - if you are a complete idiot.

It's the bag immediately round the fresh meat or fish (or live goldfish) that's free, surely? If you then choose to get a carrier bag to put that plastic-wrapped meat in, that's a carrier bag and has to be paid for (if your butcher employs 250 people nationwide... )

[Cudzoziemiec]

Interesting figures in the graph in this article:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/05/plastic-bag-charges-in-england-will-there-be-chaos-at-the-shops

Why do the Scots use so many bags? 

[Canardly]

Eer....... shopping bags, remember those. However did people cope?

[Polar Bear]

Little and often perhaps as oppose to loading the planet slayer at $bigshop once a week.

[davelodwig]

around 96 to 98 I worked for Kwiksave (remember them) and we charged for carrier bags,

1p for basic cheap plastic bags,
5p for strong bags

We did have stacks of boxes you could take for free though. Nobody died and most people brought reusable bags, trolleys, or just cardboard boxes.

Only folk that never usually shopped there complained and quite loudly and rudely often, when sommerfields bought us, they made the bags free and we went through thousands of them all of a sudden.

[Polar Bear]

I'm not saying it's a bad thing – long overdue – just expressing some sadness that it's takes a 5p fee to change people's behaviour and stop them doing something that ought to be self-evidently bad. ...

I wonder if the same could be applied to the excessive use of carbon based fuels by sticking a punitive charge on it?   

Just thinking out loud...