Selfsufficientish.com

thats great Nev I fill my little boys pushchair with all my shopping causing him to moan all the way home, alot of people on our council estate just bring the trolley home from the super market and yes they do take them back. I'm waiting for one of them to pimp up their trolley

Stonehead wrote:I get a bit tired of all this - it's just a marketing gimmick. Big corporations don't give a stuff for the environment - unless it saves them money, improves their image or makes a profit.

I just want to say how well thought through Stonehead's post is. I, too, am cynical of all that 'green bandwagon jumping' all the large corporations seem to be doing.

I haven't got the answers, but I've been trying to think if it is possible for ethical/green principles to co-exist with a large corporatist ethos. Walmart (ASDA) is said to be going green, eg, but how green are they apart from their logo?

LSP wrote

I, too, am cynical of all that 'green bandwagon jumping' all the large corporations seem to be doing.

I don't mind why large companies are doing it, i'm just glad that they are.

LSP wrote:I haven't got the answers, but I've been trying to think if it is possible for ethical/green principles to co-exist with a large corporatist ethos. Walmart (ASDA) is said to be going green, eg, but how green are they apart from their logo?

Unfortunately, a lot of big corporations simply latch on ethical/green principles as a marketing move and a way of positioning themselves to capture a new group of consumers.

To see what a genuinely ethical company espouses, have a look at Ecover's FAQ - particularly business ethics, eco-label (where they reject an official status because it's meaningless), fair trade, hybrid cars, mission, packaging, and transport of personnel. (That's the Danish FAQ in English. For some reason the British FAQ is much abbreviated and missing some entries.)

On a smaller scale have a look at the ethos of GreenCity Wholefoods or Shiney's recommendation, Cygnus Books.

Can you see Walmart, T***o et al having an ethos like any of these?

Waitrose grows on me more & more. Inside the store that I use there is a bin for used carrier bags and today I got talking to one of the managers about it - apparently it gets taken to a place where they are recycled into carrier bags or things like park benches (or even the container for plastic bag recycling). It turns out that it's not just carrier bags either - they'll take any plastic bags, so I'll be taking all the plastic wrapping there now.

I know there are arguments against things like
- using plastic bags in the first place
- the environmental cost of transporting the bags to the factory
- the environmental cost of recycling the bags
- supermarkets
- etc etc etc

However, I was encouraged to see that an organisation is at last taking an initiative here. It's only one small step, and I really think that more impact will be made once they either charge for carrier bags or stop offering them at all. And maybe one of those will be the next step. It's not just a matter of "greening" the retailers but it's also the need to bring the majority of the customers around to seeing this as not only sensible but having no negative impact on them - and by doing it in bite sized chunks might just be the way in this particular community.

I love the pram idea too! Very strong minded.... Any of you guys got sewing machines? www.morsbags.com has a great solution to the plastic bag problem that is far more effective than the odd 'green point' and the long wait for plastaxes to be implemented.

Living in Germany for a while made me realise that it IS totally possible to make taking cloth bags to the shops a habit, it just requires some mental training!

As a student... I don't have a car or any form of transportation really and so taking supermarket plastic bags is not only bad for the environment but extremely uncomfortable! Walking all the way home the plastic handles dig into your hands and leave horrible red marks.

I never even think twice about taking my back pack and a few cloth bags - they are stronger and it's easier to carry the weight home. Once I even took my 65 litre rucksack to help a friend stock up... and carried it full a good half hour walk home from the town centre! (Luckily all downhill )

The pram idea is great. We don't have a car, but have a bit of a walk to the supermarket and I get a taxi home once a week. I remember though years ago my parents used to shop every day for food, so carrying large bags was not necessary. People are so used to having cupboards and freezers full of food now. I remember when I was young our pantry had very little in it, and there was no wastage of food like there is today. maisypark

We take bags with us, either folding tote bags or the "trolley bags" that Lakeland sell. On those rare occasions we end up with a carrier bag we re-use it or give it to a charity shop for them to re-use.

There is a petition currently running calling for the introducton of a carrier-bag tax

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/plastictax/

When a similar tax was introduced in Ireland it cut the usage by 90% within a few months.

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