Contrary to popular belief, plastic bags are not laying waste to dolphins.
The Guardian reports:
Shoppers will have to pay a 5p charge on every plastic bag they use in plans to be announced by Nick Clegg.
The deputy prime minister will unveil the move next week during the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow.
The notion that plastic bags pose some special hazard to marine life, however is a myth. As reported in The Times (UK) on March 8, 2008,
Scientists and environmentalists have attacked a global campaign to ban plastic bags which they say is based on flawed science and exaggerated claims.
The widely stated accusation that the bags kill 100,000 animals and a million seabirds every year are false, experts have told The Times. They pose only a minimal threat to most marine species, including seals, whales, dolphins and seabirds…
Campaigners say that plastic bags pollute coastlines and waterways, killing or injuring birds and livestock on land and, in the oceans, destroying vast numbers of seabirds, seals, turtles and whales. However, The Times has established that there is no scientific evidence to show that the bags pose any direct threat to marine mammals…
The Priests of Green have established the sacrament of carrying home your groceries in funky bags sewn by Indonesian children. Compliance will bring you peace.
Stop Half-Accounting Susan.
Half accounting is where you taking only the benefits of your desired solution or the detriments of the opposite, while ignoring the weaknesses of your own argument.
Reusable bags have a higher manufacturing energy cost and must be washed regularly to avoid mold growth and cross-contamination. They are also typically thick polypropylene , which does not get recycled due to its high melting point. On the contrary, reusable plastic bags are quick and cheap to manufacture and are both recycleable and easily incineratable (to the point that you could get an comparable fuel exemption for them if you really wanted to).
The “good thing” for the planet is rarely so cut and dry as the Greens want you to think.
The revenue is to go to “charity”, but it imposes another accounting process for stores, which will go back onto prices and you don’t get to choose the charity. They will also employ secret shoppers to check on stores, with big fines if caught out.
The public is no longer a constituency to these clowns; it is a ‘revenue source’ to be tapped in every imaginable way. This reminds me of the legendary ‘Death of a Thousand Cuts.’
I use my plastic shopping bags as bin liners otherwise I would have to buy them. I also use them to carry my lunch (power to us, LAK ) and the children’s lunches. There are a multitude of uses for plastic bags. Mine get recycled all the time.
In Australia, a company making biodegradable plastic bags nearly went out of business because of those stupid cloth bags that were forced onto the shoppers, until Aldi began to use their bags, so now they are back in business.
What do you use to store your kitchen scraps in?
Quite the opposite — I use and reuse plastic to carry lunches, eventually they carry droppings from the cat box. I actually stopped going to grocery stores that either charge for bags or don’t have plastic (I live near three different cities and only one beach city banned plastic and started killing trees to make bags. Unlike cloth they do not retain organic particles that promote bacteria growth.
Get a clue, lassie.
I await reports of your suicide.
Did you not read the article? Plastic bags are not a threat to the environment. They are a very small part of all the plastic thrown out.
Every time I bring my reusable bags I think about the people under the USSR who always carried a string bag in their pocket so they could buy items when something would appear in their store. Comming soon here.
Yes, because it isn’t like there is any sich thing as a reusable bag that eople could carry, is there? Oh, wait..
Grow up, people, and quit whining about being asked to stop trashing the planet.
It’s just a tax. Outlandish claims just get people to accept the new tax.