And the rubbish will go in what?

Image 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.