banned plastic bags

[catalyst]

i thought their was a thread here somewhere for banning plastic bags, but couldnt find it

just heard a reort that Uganda has banned plastic bags, following the lead of rwanda and a couple other african countries!
brilliant, i thought, but why couldnt the uk do this?

[Muddypause]

I get a bit worried when I hear people declaring things that should be banned. Sometimes, reading this forum, it can seem that people want to live in an extraordinarily regulated society, where lightbulbs, plastic bags, cigarettes, 4x4s are all forbidden by law. There are some things that I fully support the banning of, because those things are just plain wrong. But plastic bags aren't wrong - it's their inappropriate over use that is causing problems.

Lets not get carried away with ideas of megalomania, eh? It seems a lazy sort of politics, and a society that bans things easily is going to be the sort of society that has all sorts of other draconian measures imposed against people (Uganda and Rwanda, for example).

Lets get creative about this issue, not restrictive.

[catalyst]

well, i am not often heard promoting the idea of more laws or banning stuff...
but this would mainly be a problem for supermarkets, who produce all this unnecessary packaging but have no accountability for the mess it all makes..

i agree with you about banning the USE of things, but stopping the manufacture of things that we know to be bad... thats a different thing entirely... if we have to have govt. then they should be doing useful things, like insisting supermarkets are accountable for all their actions. there are alternatives, such as photodegradable bags, or low cost hemp or jute bags... perhaps if, when i forget to take my bags to the shops, my only alternative is to fork out a quid for a longterm bag, i would forget less often :)

or supermarkets could make all those boxes available to carry stuff home...

or come to think of it, long term i'd prefer if there werent supermarkets (at least not in their present form),,, :)

[biffvernon]

On the positive side, I've noticed that it's been quite a while since a shop assistant has insisted that I take their bag. They now seem happy for me to use my own and regard a till reciept as sufficient proof of purchase.

[mybarnconversion]

I get a bit worried when I hear people declaring things that should be banned.

...

Lets get creative about this issue, not restrictive.

Couldn't agree more -- 'ban it or tax it' seems to be today's mantra in many political and issue based circles ... we should think of better ways to do things, an innovative rather than restrictive approach.

[biffvernon]

Yes, we should think of better ways to do things, such as always remembering to take shopping bags when shopping. Easy!

[Peggy Sue]

All these things do become a dilemma. I don't want to encourage plastic bags and believe supermarkets have the power (as with many other things) so I boycotted the likes of Tescos, also wanting to support local shopiing- but even the local market which I am keen to support use hundreds of plastic bags. I bring my own and can't get them out quick enough before they have packed 4 where one would do! Even when they accept my bags they have tomatoes and strawberries in plastic containers.

If I decide not to buy in plastic containers too that would have meant this week I couldn't have bought any British fruit, so I would support food miles- which I don't want to do. I wish there was an sy way here! Shall I make him take the strawbwrries out of the plastic box - that would make me popular!!