I don't get the new charges on carrier bags. If they really wanted to stop the usage of them, they wouldn't apply a charge they would just need to request supermarkets to stop supplying them, after all there are plenty of alternatives to purchase in stores. The government (Michael Gove) claims that 15 million bags have been taken out of circulation by the charge. Absolute bullshitte. The tax levy stopped supermarkets giving them away for free by the pallet load, that was caused by the leading supermarket chains in the first place. So now they are going to double the charge to 10p, so fooking what, so what are they going to do to stop supermarkets prepackaging vegetables. Let me tell you...FOOK ALL. It's all an absolute load of bolloxs, if you really want to stop the use of plastics, just ban plastic carrier bags and stop all this pussy footing around. In other news, Japan will be dishing up Whale meat for local dinners in 2019. So much for protecting the environment bolloxs.
But that is what it is all about, tax. Plastic carrier bags is one of the easiest problems to solve, but instead they just choose to have you pay to pollute the environment instead.
I get the entire stop plastics getting into the ocean thing. But tell me this....I buy my 10p bag from Tesco, how does this end up finding it’s way into the Ocean like, as I stick the **** in the recycling bin?
Technically the supermarkets were supposed to give you plastics bags to stop cross contamination of fish and poultry, lazy barstewards even stopped doing that unless you paid for it. So who did benefit from all this taxation, the supermarkets, not from the bags but from the reduced delivery, storage, purchase etc which cost a damn sight more than the government are collecting in revenue.
Why would you want to stop the use of plastics ?? You want to massively increase the : 1. recycling/reuse in the manufacturing chains of everything plastic 2. education of people far better so as to facilitate #1 To quickly demonstrate #1 ... The bottle top on this weeks' plastic milk bottle could be reused. Same with all the components that comprise my near empty roll-on deodorant, or the "handle" section of my near blunt disposable razor (the blade section is easily removable) . The now empty Tropicana fruit juice bottle I have, is strong enough to not compress without a fair bit of my full weight on it (it could be transported back to source without being crushed) . There is a lot more that can easily be done (manufacturing, retailers, consumers) with the right combination of carrot and stick.
And put a tax on Pringles for their effing cans (it takes me too long to remove the cardboard fragments from the aluminium disc at the bottom) .
Bottles always used to be returned and refundable, I thought we was going to start that idea up again in the UK, as per all words and no action.
If you are a 50 something like me, you used to get 1p from the off licence in the 70s for returning glass bottles. I always carried a bag around as a kid in case I found discarded bottles on my travels (sweetie money ) .
Asian countries are leaving us miles behind on this kind of stuff..You never see an empty bottle, someone always buys your recyclable stuff.
I get pisseed off, the government point the finger at the consumer when it is the supplier causing the problems. Bottles used to be returnable, brown paper carrier bags were used and no veg was packaged. It all became about profit. The supermarkets will claim it cuts down waste, absolute bolloxs, since when did spuds need a best before date...i'll tell you when, since they started putting them in plastic wrappings!
All sides are at fault. 1. The retailers who demand plastics etc that are expedient for their production/supply chains, without consideration for the extent/ease of which the packaging can be returned somehow to the supply chain (those black plastic trays that most current recycling machinery cannot process etc) . 2. Consumers who are "right on" about their "green credentials" , but cannot be arsed to even fully remove labelling or fastenings from glass/plastics (for starters) before putting them in the bin. 3. The state, that does not task the science/eng sectors to come up with the carrot/stick solutions that ensures 1 and 2 operate to produce the recycling/reuse "virtual circle" . There is much that all sides can do to try and solve the issues.
