Scotland to charge for plastic bags

[Dave2002]

Dave, you might be interested In the report linked in my post on the General chat thread on platform 3.
The increase in electrical waste each year is similar to the total waste from all carrier bags.
Some other interesing stats on there.

Is this the one - http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/images...ctsheet092.pdf ?

I am always amused by statements such as:

In the lifetime of 1 UK citizen 3.3 tonnes of waste electronics is created!
(weeeman.org)

and

15 million mobile phones are upgraded in the UK each year, laid from end-to-end
they would reach from John O'Groats to Lands End! (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk)

For the first, I suspect that one UK citizen has a very short life.

The second reminds me of Dorothy Parker -

If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

[teamsaint]

Is this the one - http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/images...ctsheet092.pdf ?

I am always amused by statements such as:



and



For the first, I suspect that one UK citizen has a very short life.

The second reminds me of Dorothy Parker -

Thats the one.
There are some interesting stats in amongst the slightly odd comparisons.

The increase in electrical waste each year is huge.

[Anna]

There are some interesting stats in amongst the slightly odd comparisons.

You mean like comparing everything to the size of Wales? :-)

Living on this small island meant that the inhabitants had a distorted sense of scale, believing the world to be much smaller than it actually was. A scale of measurement was needed; a way of comparing the world to something recognisable. Choice by consensus decided that the Wales should be the standard of measurement for land mass, population and annual rainfall. ‘The Wales’ was to be used along with double-decker London buses, football pitches, the Isle of Wight, Olympic-sized swimming pools and Wembley stadiums as other units of size.

(There is actually a Welsh eco-charity, conservation project working in Africa to protect and maintain an area of rainforest and plant trees for farmers. The charity is called – funnily enough ‘The Size of Wales’)

Sorry, very offtopic. I recycled my old mobile phone via Age Concern's recycling scheme.

[teamsaint]

You mean like comparing everything to the size of Wales? :-)

Living on this small island meant that the inhabitants had a distorted sense of scale, believing the world to be much smaller than it actually was. A scale of measurement was needed; a way of comparing the world to something recognisable. Choice by consensus decided that the Wales should be the standard of measurement for land mass, population and annual rainfall. ‘The Wales’ was to be used along with double-decker London buses, football pitches, the Isle of Wight, Olympic-sized swimming pools and Wembley stadiums as other units of size.

(There is actually a Welsh eco-charity, conservation project working in Africa to protect and maintain an area of rainforest and plant trees for farmers. The charity is called – funnily enough ‘The Size of Wales’)

Sorry, very offtopic. I recycled my old mobile phone via Age Concern's recycling scheme.

That was exactly what I was going to say, but got in a very slight muddle with my apostrophes in "waleses"so left it out!!

I think in america they use Indiana instead of Wales. I certainly heard this at one of the opening ceremonies at a big Sports event, probably the olympics.

Something like....." Here come team Belgium. Their country is the size of Indiana."

I wonder if that is imperial or metric? Perhaps they will have to change to "Ohios", or something.

[Anna]

Something like....." Here come team Belgium. Their country is the size of Indiana."

Whereas we'd say "Here comes Belgium - their country is one and a half times the size of Wales"

We've forgotten one important unit of comparison - The Royal Albert Hall is a unit of volume used particularly when referring to volumes of rubbish placed in landfill!! :-)

And with one bound I get us back on topic ........

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Living on this small island meant that the inhabitants had a distorted sense of scale, believing the world to be much smaller than it actually was. A scale of measurement was needed; a way of comparing the world to something recognisable. Choice by consensus decided that the Wales should be the standard of measurement for land mass, population and annual rainfall. ‘The Wales’ was to be used along with double-decker London buses, football pitches, the Isle of Wight, Olympic-sized swimming pools and Wembley stadiums as other units of size.

The Isle of Wight one is still touted by those in population denial, even though it's been 100 years since you could cram the world's population on to that island.

[Serial_Apologist]

Er...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2478235/How-bag-life-POISON-Expert-warns-reusable-carriers-contaminated-E-coli.html

[jean]

You'd have great difficulty in finding raw meat unpackaged in any supermarket.

(Aren't the DM a bit confused here? Haven't they just told us that the whole idea of ditching plastic bags was theirs in the first place?)

[Serial_Apologist]

You'd have great difficulty in finding raw meat unpackaged in any supermarket.

(Aren't the DM a bit confused here? Haven't they just told us that the whole idea of ditching plastic bags was theirs in the first place?)

Undoubtedly, jean (and not for the zillionth time); but the prof does mention bacteria on the outside of supermarket wrapped meat.

[jean]

But mightn't the bacteria be transferred to adjacent foodstuffs whatever sort of bag they were all together in?

[Serial_Apologist]

But mightn't the bacteria be transferred to adjacent foodstuffs whatever sort of bag they were all together in?

Yes, but I think underlying the point here is the overlooked one that fresh carrier bags are less likely to have built up the range and number of bacteria to be found over a period of time on re-used bags.

[Anna]

Yes, but I think underlying the point here is the overlooked one that fresh carrier bags are less likely to have built up the range and number of bacteria to be found over a period of time on re-used bags.

But didn't your Mum, or your Granny, take down the shopping bag which always hung behind the kitchen door (or a wicker basket if you were Home Counties) on a daily basis and blithely put purchases from the butcher, the fishmonger, the grocer and the greengrocer in it all together?

OK, maybe it was a string bag and the bacteria fell out on the way home ......

[Serial_Apologist]

But didn't your Mum, or your Granny, take down the shopping bag which always hung behind the kitchen door (or a wicker basket if you were Home Counties) on a daily basis and blithely put purchases from the butcher, the fishmonger, the grocer and the greengrocer in it all together?

OK, maybe it was a string bag and the bacteria fell out on the way home ......

TBH I don't remember much, Anna, though I do recall brown paper bags held by the corpers and whisked around, and newspaper wrapping for fruit and veg, and a basket of the type you describe. Maybe someone my age (68) can recall that period better than I. Mum was pretty fastidious about cleanliness though, I do remember; she would say "Don't touch that!" if it looked like I was going to pick up say a discarded newspaper or magazine, adding, "you don't know where it's been", though she was practised at licking at a handkerchief and then wiping around my mouth with it! Strange how one clearly remembers some things from early childhood and not others.

I'll tell you a good story, though.

I was still refusing to feed myself when nearly aged 2. Instead I would just wail and bang my spoon on the high chair next to the plate put in front of me. If the food was uneaten when Mum and Dad finished theirs, Mum would say, "Very well, if you aren't going to feed yourself, then you can go without", and take the food away. Whenever she went shopping, I would be left outside in the pram, (this wouldn't happen today!), which would gradually get loaded up with more purchases. Having bought a loaf of bread on this particular occasion, Mum went into another shop, and on returning found that I had literally ripped the entire crust off the bread with my bare little hands and eaten it, being so hungry! Needless to say, the problem of my refusing to feed myself at table was solved from that day on!

[Beef Oven!]

I'm totally up for this bit of nannystatefurdemgesellschaftundgemeinschaftism.

Why don't they just ban them altogether?

People will get used to taking their own bags in no time, just like no-one even thinks about lighting up a ciggy in the cinema.

Simple.

[ahinton]

I'm totally up for this bit of nannystatefurdemgesellschaftundgemeinschaftism.

Why don't they just ban them altogether?

People will get used to taking their own bags in no time, just like no-one even thinks about lighting up a ciggy in the cinema.

Simple.

This is pretty much what I'd suggested, by implication, earlier in the sense of following the French example. OK, the French "bags for life" are also made of plastic, but given that they can last for years (as have mine), replacing squillions of ordinary plastic carrier bags most of which are disposed of after first use with hundreds of thousands of French-style "bags for life" would cut down on this very substantially.

As I also noted by implication, however, merely "banning" supermarkets from issuing plastic carriers to their customers would be a flawed measure on its own, given that customers who want to use such bags can simply purchase their own, either at supermarkets or online, at far less than the 5p charge per bag that's being charged in some areas already and proposed for introduction in England.