I understand the idea behind not having all the plastic bags around, and going into landfill, but with British weather being generally wet, damp or very wet then a cotton bag is useless at keeping goods dry!

Whilst they can be reused for some things, i.e. shopping, how many people reuse plastic bags for other things. We use them for storing things in, as waste bags in bins, to give just two examples. So are people going to buy bin bags etc from shops/supermarkets and then these will all end up in landfill instead.

Do they mean plastic carrier bags
from the shops/supermarket or are they including binliners in this?
If so it will never work ,come the
warm weather,and bins only getting emptied every other week.

How right on and trendy. But not practical. I see no problem with plastic bags, as long as they are reused.

Cruddass is a muppett wrote:
How right on and trendy. But not practical. I see no problem with plastic bags, as long as they are reused.

Even if they are reused they get thrown away eventually.

Elle wrote:
I understand the idea behind not having all the plastic bags around, and going into landfill, but with British weather being generally wet, damp or very wet then a cotton bag is useless at keeping goods dry!

Rain gets in the top of plastic carrier bags though.

More right on whingey green gumph, Even if every shopper in UK Plc went and carried their shopping home in hessian sacks, the net effect on the environment would be miniscule, just more focus shifting away from serious issues and endowing the country with a sense of 'green guilt' that makes us think that individuals are to blame for the climate change, and a worsening environment, when in fact the evidence to support climate change being affected by by human actions is still argued over in more learned forums than this...

Jef wrote:

Cruddass is a muppett wrote: How right on and trendy. But not practical. I see no problem with plastic bags, as long as they are reused.

Even if they are reused they get thrown away eventually.

No Sh1t Sherlock.

Cruddass - my point was that there is a probelm because they will eventually go to waste and damage the environment whereas other types of bag can be used for years and then be recycled.

And..."No Sh1T Sherlock"??? Are you 12?

baseboy wrote:
More right on whingey green gumph, Even if every shopper in UK Plc went and carried their shopping home in hessian sacks, the net effect on the environment would be miniscule, just more focus shifting away from serious issues and endowing the country with a sense of 'green guilt' that makes us think that individuals are to blame for the climate change, and a worsening environment, when in fact the evidence to support climate change being affected by by human actions is still argued over in more learned forums than this...

Ha-at last a sensible comment.

If we want to reduce landfill how about stopping women from buying shop-loads of new clothes each season? They all end up there long before they wear out.

petethefeet wrote:
If we want to reduce landfill how about stopping women from buying shop-loads of new clothes each season? They all end up there long before they wear out.

What a ridiculous comment. Most people take clothes to charity shops not throw them away.

petethefeet wrote:
If we want to reduce landfill how about stopping women from buying shop-loads of new clothes each season? They all end up there long before they wear out.

What a ridiculous comment. Most people take clothes to charity shops not throw them away.

I just do not understand this obsession with plastic bags, there are loads of perfectly reasonable alternatives. It is just sheer laziness that is driving this constant harping about not being able to live without plastic bags.

Jef wrote:

petethefeet wrote: If we want to reduce landfill how about stopping women from buying shop-loads of new clothes each season? They all end up there long before they wear out.

What a ridiculous comment. Most people take clothes to charity shops not throw them away.

Jef. Your name sounds like a bloke but, by your reply i suspect you are not. Explain this for me? If the gender split is roughly 50:50 then why does women's clothing get several floors of a department store whilst menswear gets a corner of the basement? So, unless the majority of blokes are cross-dressing and wearing women's togs underneath, or women are quietly indulging in extreme sports that trashes them in no time, then the undeniable conclusion is that the female gender is dumping the stuff long before it is worn out? Don't you agree?

Pete, I agree that women buy more clothes, but what does that have to do with the the article? Clothes will rot and breakdown, plastic bags do not - please, show me the connection?

petethefeet wrote:

Jef wrote:

petethefeet wrote: If we want to reduce landfill how about stopping women from buying shop-loads of new clothes each season? They all end up there long before they wear out.

What a ridiculous comment. Most people take clothes to charity shops not throw them away.

Jef. Your name sounds like a bloke but, by your reply i suspect you are not. Explain this for me? If the gender split is roughly 50:50 then why does women's clothing get several floors of a department store whilst menswear gets a corner of the basement? So, unless the majority of blokes are cross-dressing and wearing women's togs underneath, or women are quietly indulging in extreme sports that trashes them in no time, then the undeniable conclusion is that the female gender is dumping the stuff long before it is worn out? Don't you agree?

I don't think I said women weren't getting rid of clothes out I merely stated it was more liekly they went to charity shops than landfill. Maybe the women you know are just not that concerned about the environment but I don't now anyone that simply throws away clothing.

Also, most women have larger collections of clothing than men that would reflect the difference in the larger availabilty of clothing for women in stores. They buy more and have more.

Littlepoo wrote:
Pete, I agree that women buy more clothes, but what does that have to do with the the article? Clothes will rot and breakdown, plastic bags do not - please, show me the connection?

Good point.

Guys i think you're really missing the point a bit here. I respect everyone's point of view... YES, we need bin lining bags, and supermarket plastic bags are great for this, and YES we need waterproof bags to scoop up after dogs, but a tiny bit of investigation shows that cornstarch bags are nearly identical to plastic bags, feel the same and act the same, but are biodegradable.

The concept of recycling is actually the last resort in saving the planet, first we should reduce what we use, and then re-use, and THEN recycle. the idea of using Jute bags is purely to get us to reduce the amount of needless bags we use. In this respect I agree with the comment on clothing, we should reduce the amounts we buy as opposed to relying on recycling items in a charity shop.

Basically, alternatives to plastic (i.e jute, cornstarch) REDUCE the number of plastic bags we use, and these can be safely used in landfill, stopping the need to reuse them in bins, and recycle them :)

Perhaps these facts will help change your minds and stop the negative comments above:
* Did you know that it takes 400-1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose? And even then, it doesn’t biodegrade, but instead breaks down into tiny particles which go on to damage the environment and animals.
* Did you know British traders give away on average 13 BILLION plastic bags each year, and worldwide the figure is 1.2 TRILLION. That is one million plastic bags per minute.
* Each of these bags is used for an average of 12 minutes.
* only 1/200 bags is recycled
* In June 2006 the UN estimated that for every mile of the world’s ocean, there are 46,000 plastic bags floating about.