Takes the piss

forcing people to be green through taxing and price hikes aint gonna make people wanna be green through the idea of wanting to save the environment, its always the poorest that get hit the hardest. and like someone said a local shop putting carrier bag prices up to 5p aint cos hes an eco warrior but a tight cunt

But it won't hit you in the pocket if you have a bit of forethought and take a bag with you. So it isn't hitting the poorest, it's hitting the laziest, which is fine by me. A tiny bit of effort can make a huge difference.

Let's just say the average person uses 3 carrier bags a week (conservative estimate). That's 156 bags a year. If the population of Newcastle (just Newcastle, not any of the surrounding area, so around 275,000 people) stopped using plastic bags for one year, that would save nearly 43 million plastic bags!

Stop being lazy arses and take a bit of responsibility.

5p isn't gonna hit anyone in all honesty, unless you throw it at them

But you were talking about price hikes hitting the poorest hardest!

It might not hit anyone terribly hard, but it might make them think a bit more rather than just taking a free bag for the sake of it. I've seen plenty of people buy something small, have it put in a plastic bag, which they promptly put into a bag they were already carrying! Utterly pointless and wasteful.

it's not about punishing people and forcing them into buying them - it's about giving them the choice.

Personally, we always have carriers in the car, partly cause we often shop at lidl/aldi anyways

b.o.b. - i think we're just old and sensible

Donatellos prices havent moved for a while so am alright

If i am in the car heading for 'the shop' I take my recycled bags, about 10 of them!

The person who creates a viable use for old carrier bags is a rich man like!

Check this poor guy coming back from Nettolottis.. bet that fucker wishes they did carrier bags!


p.s - avoid searching google using the term 'huge load'. hahaha:spangled:

Can't beleive I started reading a subject about Subway sandwiches and it has rapidly turned into a bombardment about saving the universe! :spangled: Which happens to be a personal pet peev so I can't resist sticking my own oar in briefly :lecture:

I can't stand these bloody environmentalists who get on their high horse with their holier than thou attitude about how people should do more to save the planet. The fact is that no matter if you re-use your Spar carrier bags 17 times, cut the plug off the telly, and catch a bus to Barnsley for your hols instead of jetting off to Barbados, you're not gonna make one jot of difference. To anything. At all. But you will have put yourself through a hell of a lot of a hassle and inconvenience trying.

I say solve the problem at the source. If we had 100% renewable sources like wind for our energy, then who cares whether the lightbulbs stay on or off, it's not hurting anything. And if our cars ran on Hydrogen, who's to complain if I drive down to the corner shop? And as for rubbish, if we had more Energy From Waste power stations we'd be creating energy in a low Co2 way and burning all the rubbish at the same time so it's not going to the dump.

In my opinion the focus on consumers being green draws our efforts away from what we should be campaigning for - environmentally friendly power & waste management, which would mean we could all stop inconveniencing ourselves and live our lives freely again without people bleating on about the consequences :argue:

Rant over

go on andysouth lad

I dont use carrier bags if I have to pay for them like, i just struggle with my gear

And yet no-one wants to pay a bit extra for environmentally friendly power. It isn't as easy as just building a few wind farms you know. It will cost more money to get such an infrastructure in place. I won't go into it all now, it would take hours as it is a hugely complex issue, but if you want it, you'll have to pay for it, in the short term at least.

And yes, the little bit that an individual does doesn't amount to much on its own, but if we all changed how we behave, it would make a huge difference. I'd rather do my bit than just sit back and expect others to sort it out. Are you seriously saying that it is a huge inconvenience to make incremental changes to how you live, like remembering to take a bag to the shop? You probably spend more time each day wondering what to eat for lunch than you would making a few simple changes.

Yup. It'll be bloody expensive. In the short term anyway, it'll come down over time. As will the cost of running hydrogen cars & that sorta stuff. And it makes sense, cos oil & gas are all going up at about a million percent anyway, so the ££ just needs to be invested more wisely.

Nup. The figures for Co2 culprits are: Power stations: 30%, Transport: 19%, Industry: 21%, Residential & commercial: 12%, Collect & process fossil fuels: 9%, Biomass burning: 9%. So say if residential is 6%, about half of that 12% number combined with commercial, even if EVERYONE somehow managed to reduce their emmisions by HALF it would still only have a 3% net effect! Pointless! And it would have all been a massive job to sort out and cost a HUGE amount of money to campaign for, which could have been spent on building windfarms and leaving us all alone!

Yep that's exactly what I'm saying! I'm a lazy git and I've got every right to be a lazy git and shouldn't be made to feel guilty about it. And I refuse to go rooting around my stinking rubbish to put old cans in a different bin, or keep a stash of bags in a bum-bag in cash the urge takes me to pop into a shop! Getting each and every person to make sacrifices and generally enjoy life less is an enormous job and surely a crappy plan. A few important policy changes by government & industry to let us enjoy life without damaging planet has got to be the way to go, surely :chill: :groovy:

Oh - brilliant picture above!!!

you absolute div, have a word with yourself for fuck sake

Anyone who thinks charging 5p for plastic bags won't make a difference should go to Marks and Spencer and see that pretty much everyone there is taking their own now. It's not the 5p, it's the making you think about it. All shops should do it.

Subway is rancid.

I am a bit of a global warming skeptic, but when it comes to plastic, its a different matter. Plastic is nasty. Plastic bags take 10-20 years to decompose, plastic bottles much longer - look at the state of the Pacific Ocean now, which is where most of the worlds plastic floats around to due light winds, vast ocean place, and oceanic currents.

Who actually gives a shit, the sun is going to burn out in 5 million years anyway and nee body will give a shite about taking their own bags anywhere !!