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Monday, November 17, 2008

And the rubbish will go in what?

plastic bags awaiting recyclingImage by evelynishere via FlickrI just went to look for a plastic grocery bag to put some yucky rubbish in. We had ants in the kitchen earlier and we had a major cleanup. But where to put all the crap? Usually we have tons of plastic bags, but I have been a good environmentally friendly reusable bag user lately and have reduced my environmentally unfriendly?? disposable plastic bag collection. In our house, we rarely threw out plastic bags that did not have greasy, wet, smelly, mouldy, yucky stuff in them, so we were not really throwing them out were we??

We have now reached the end of the road, where I will have to break ranks with my wife (not a good idea) or succumb to disorganisation and forget the reusable bags.

This nightmare is in our very near future here in South Australia when plastic shopping bags are banned next May. Captain Garrett Master of the Good Ship Environment, on behalf of the Commonwealth Government tried to push for national ban on plastic bags earlier in the year, but that was rerouted to the further study department to be delayed as too difficult. Interesting that South Australia bit the bullet and moved forward. South Australia has been progressive on environmental measures before with the only container deposit legislation in Australia. Although the jury is out on the value of segregating recyclables, Ryan's Joey Scout Mob has gained over $100 from recycled beer bottles and cans from office since I started organising to recycle them a few months ago. Money for old rope I suppose.

I wonder if they will just charge an outrageous price to keep disorganised people like me honest and to keep up the supermarket owners margins as they make outrageous profits on all the new grocery carrying options that they will be able to sell and the plastic bags for rubbish that we will have to buy. Will we see a reduction in the cost of groceries? *laughs uproriously*

Rather like the enthusiasm for tackling global warming that was such a powerful force less than a year ago. That is out the window with the financial meltdown. People will be reluctant to make the required sacrifices required to meet some of the targets being set by the Australian Government. Many consumers like me will have a strong inclination to support the phasing out of plastic bags until the day that we have to buy them at the checkout. Then people will be grumpy.

So I suppose I have to admit that my inherent laziness just wants things to stay the same, regardless of the environmental issues. We can leave that for another few years, can't we?

Update. I went to the supermarket this morning and bought some plastic bags. Just as back up. You never know when I have garden poo patrol duties.

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8 comments:

Jayne said...

Have a look at this site, about half way down are 2 pseudo ads for plastic bags ;)

RobW said...

If we got all the old plastic bags in the world and put them over the heads of politicians the world would be a much better place.

River said...

I'm a checkout operator and I'm not looking forward to the day when I have to say to a customer "I'm sorry, there are no plastic bags available, if you haven't brought in your own reusable bags you'll have to buy some from us." People have known this day is coming for quite a while now. Like you many of them have bought reusable bags, but there are a few still who say they will only buy bags when they have to and others who assume "something will happen" so their plastic bag supply continues. We also get customers now asking us to "chuck in an extra bag" because they're saving them up for when there aren't any more available.
Can I also say here that the reusable bags are washable and ask people to please keep them reasonably presentable? We DO have the right to refuse to pack a really dirty, smelly bag, but speaking personally, I know I will be uncomfortable confronting some of the customers on the state of the bags we are presented with.

Anonymous said...

I may have this all wrong but I reuse these plastic bags to put my rubbish in, including lawn clipping (I live in a townhouse so can't mulch, no room). So now I will need to buy plastic bags to do all this... I can see who was really behind the push for all this.

Anonymous said...

Maybe packaging is overall different in Australia, but here in the US we still get many items in plastic bags that can be saved for smelly gross garbage. For example, bread & bagels both come in plastic bags which can be reused if you save them. If you're creative you'll probably find lots of other packaging that can be reused.

jmb said...

Goodness all those links must have taken forever.

I have taken my own bags for years to the grocery store. Funnily enough only one store gives credit for this, 3c per bag. Until they started doing it I didn't think about it. Now I think the others should do so too.

So will that be plastic or paper is not going to be heard in SA anymore?

Colin Campbell said...

JMB

The option of paper is very rare in South Australia. I remember it well from my time in the US. No idea why paper is not more widely used here.

♥ Braja said...

I kinda feel the same mixed mood towards this: here in this village plastic bags were banned, and sure enough it's a cleaner place. It just took some adjustment that's all, and I do think it's easier in a village than the city...