Handbags at dawn...!

Taffycat

Taffycat

Crunchy Cat
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Most of us know that plastic takes up space in landfill; it reappears decades later when the land is being excavated for building, or whatever and, will probably be "found" by archaeologists of the future.

In 2311 they will talk knowledgeably about the great wars which took place between the great empires of Sainsbury, Tesco and Asda. Of how the people would carry small, bag-shaped banners to proclaim their allegiance to their most favoured empire.

But I digress...

Back in the here-and-now, one will be charged 5p, from October 1st - if you happen to go shopping in Wales, that is - for any single-use plastic carrier, provided by pharmacies, clothing stores, or supermarkets.

On the face of it, this seems fair enough. Until, that is, one reads the blurb which some jobsworthy individuals in our Welsh Assembly have produced, regarding "exemptions" from the charge. It's okay... I'm really not going to introduce anything political here, I'm merely explaining who is behind this new law.

So what are these "exemptions..? Well they're listed here, as being:

a. Food items that are unwrapped – loose fruit and vegetables, bread, pick and mix sweets etc. This includes food items that are partly unwrapped – food placed in a sleeve or other part open wrapper.
b. Loose seeds, bulbs, corms or rhizomes – loose grass seed, flower bulbs, seed potatoes etc.
c. Unpackaged blades - axe, knife blade or razor blade.
d. Unpackaged plants or flowers that could have been contaminated by soil.
e. Packaged uncooked: fish or fish products – a pouch of raw fish fillets or raw minced fish meat.
meat or meat products – pre-packed raw steak or packet of raw beef burgers or sausages etc.
poultry or poultry products – a pack of raw chicken fillets or raw turkey mince etc.

Items listed under exemption e can only be placed in a small bag, such as those found on a roll in the fruit and vegetable aisle.

f. Live aquatic creatures in water – fish, coral, crabs etc.
g. Bags that are sealed before the point of sale – this would be for items placed in bags and sealed before they are offered to the customer. These are not subject to the charge as the customer has no choice but to accept the bag as part of the packaging.
h. On board ships, trains, aircraft, coaches or buses.
i. In airports after you pass through security.
j. Bags used for mail order.
k. Small flat paper bags that do not have handles and are no more than 175mm (width) x 260mm (height) or about the size of a greetings card.
l. Very small plastic bags that do not have handles and are no more than 125mm (width) x 125mm (height). These could be used for very small items such as buttons or small screws.
m. Small three dimensional paper bags that do not have a handle and are no more than 80mm (width) x 50mm (gusset width) x 155mm (height). These are about the size of bottle of cough mixture.
n. Gusseted box liners – these are sometimes used to line reusable boxes or cover reusable boxes that are used for deliveries.
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Anyone still with me...? :lol: But there's more... and here is where it becomes even more confusing for the poor souls who are trying to implement this new "law" ..... I should add that it carries a penalty of up to £5,000 if shops fail to comply. (Quite how this would be enforced is unclear.)

The great minds who have thought up all of this, decided that there might be "loopholes" so, in an endeavour to close them, they came up with this:

Exemption a-f

The law states that you and your customers may only place the above items in the exempt bag. If an item which is not an exempt item is placed in the bag - the bag would need to be charged for.
Example

You could have loose apples, potatoes and pears in one bag and not have to charge. If you then placed a box of tea bags in there too, you would need to apply the charge.

This is to prevent a loop hole in the law. A person can not put an apple in one bag with lots of other shopping, a potato in another bag with lots of other shopping, a lettuce in another etc. and get all their single use carrier bags for free..........

................If you went to a fast food restaurant and purchased a packet of fries and a burger then the fries can be placed in a free bag as they are only part wrapped and you would not be expected to place these in a reusable bag as there could be some food safety risks. If the burger is also placed in the bag, then the bag would be charged for. This is because it is safe to place wrapped food into a reusable bag and the purpose of these Regulations is to change customer behaviour every time they shop and in every situation.
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You have to laugh. The mental image comes to mind of a harassed shop assistant trying to explain about gusset widths and a lack of handles to an angry pensioner; or why he/she is verboten from popping a pack of Werther's Originals into the same bag as the pound of apples they've just purchased. :lol:
 
they not gone far enough, the charge should be £1000 for a plastic carrier bag, and it should be the supermarket that pays, failure will result in the supermarket being closed, all staff will receive full pay until the matter is resolved ... further to that, they should also pay for ANY plastic used in wrapping ANY product they sell that cannot biodegrade within 2 weeks. :)

simple answer ... BAN all plastic bags & wrappings and anything remotely resembling 'plastic' that does not biodegrade in 2 weeks. I'd like to make it shorter, but dog **** takes longer to degrade.

Supermarkets, and all retail shops, 'supply' this trash ... we, the consumer, throw it away ... if it cannot be recycled, it should not be 'sold' at all. :)


as for politicians ... I need more bullets :cheers:
 
What a waste... I bet the millions spend on getting this law passed, enforced, etc... will outweigh the 5p's collected...

After all, we'll still be using plastic bags, but just paying a little more.

In the states I was always given recycled paper bags - why don't we just switch to those instead? They wouldn't even cost 5p to make and are biodegradable.

FWIW, I try to bring some "bags for life" that I got from Sainsburys a couple of years ago - they seem like a good idea, but I'm not going to always carry them around for a spur of the moment shop - just supermarket shopping.
 

You know what? I sometimes am sad to say I am Welsh!

What a load of codswallop :mad:
 
Really nice to see that they have kept it simple. :D

Just think, someone has been paid for producing this nightmare. :confused:

As Ian says, recycled paper bags would be ideal and yet no-one seems to have thought about it. Or, Mucks idea of biodegradable plastic with a very short lifespan.

Typical beaurocrats' answer to a simple problem. :cry:
 
TC, stand for election, i would vote for you oh hang on i'm english & live in england!:wave:

But yes the plastic bag situation is crazy, i have bag for life or decent canvas bags to use again & again.
 
:D That is like reinventing the wheel paper carrier bags. When I were a boy all the shops used to use a paper carrier bag and I think they used to charge 2d or 3d for a bag because ladies used to have their own capacious bags to put shopping in. Most grocers used to deliver goods to your home if what you had purchased was too much for you to carry. I can remember Vyes who was our local grocer in Dover delivered on a Thursday so Mum and Gran went shopping on a Tuesday and they used to walk a 1 1/2 miles to catch the no 93 bus down to town. Catch people doing that now, I think not.
 
I'm with Mucks on this one, non-biodegrable plastic bags are clogging the planet, literally, especially our waterways.

I must confess it was Marks & Spencers charging 5p for a carrier bag that made me start using those strong bags that cost about 40p. Trouble is, being so used all my life to plastic bags at the checkout I sometimes forget to take them into the supermarket with me.

This means I now have about twenty of these bags in the boot of me motor :eek:

Still, I don't mind, generally I'm not fond of greenies and their ideals but the carrier bag problem is one I'm in harmony with.

PS: Just thought I'd mention Bodyshop use recycled paper bags and biodegrable bags so a thumbs up for them.
 
Gosh, I'm a bit surprised that so many of you read this and commented. :)

Cards on the table... I am all for using less plastic, and agree with Mucks, it's time that biodegradeable packaging/bags were brought into use by supermarkets. Good old paper bags even.

Whenever we go to the shops, we use a mixture of strong, lightweight shopping bags, and a "string" bag (purchased a few years ago from Lakeland Ltd. It can hold copious amounts of bulky items.) We keep them in the car. (Like Sir Flopps, it took a while to remember to actually take them into the store, so we've accumulated quite a few! lol.)

Meanwhile, why do the jobsworthies make things so bloomin' complicated? :lol:
 
I bought a set of refurbished inks from Cartridge World, free plug 'cos not only were they recycled ink cartridges in recycled packaging, but he put them in a very sturdy brown paper bag that I can also use again.

Some of the 'problems' with this plastic bag crap, is, people accept them ... I don't, and every time they ask me how many bags I wan't, I say, "no thanks, I'm saving the planet" :lol:

I take me fruit & veg and just bung em in the cart ... I :rolleyes: everytime I see someone putting some fruit, say bananas, into one of them flimsy plastic bags as if they need to keep the skins clean :confused:

oh, and while we are here, what's with this ... please keep refrigerated ... on cabbage, collie, carrots, swede, parsnips, and any other veg in a plastic bag, even seen it on potatoes ... that one really has me confused. Mind you, if you don't, they don't last a day. :rolleyes:

So, next time YOU go shopping, ask 'em to please supply a nice wet, err, brown paper bag ... and can we have a nice dolly girl fill it for me. :)
 
I basically do my shopping from day to day, so I have like a small daypack that I bought from Argos, like what ya would take on a walk, that does me fine. And if I goto LIDL, I will just use a box if I forget my bag.
 
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