Thread: Plastic bag ban, but coles does a whimp back flip

Originally Posted by Gordie

Not sure where you are going with this one...

You said "not crying their eyes out at having to pay 15c for a bag if they are too lazy to do something about it themselves. A bit like here in SA...We put reusable bags in our car and take them to the shops....oh the hardship, I don't know how we have gone through this torture for all of these years!!!"

This did seem a little over the top in response to my comment, which was ;

Where's the innovation? It merely shifts the responsibility from the retailer to the consumer, with a profit gain for the retailer.

Doesn't seem to me that it's me ranting. But, to each......

Originally Posted by Roverlord off road spares

got me confused also

Perhaps you need Google translate for English, Mario, rather than German. It was pretty straightforward.

Apologies if my comments caused offence.

Here are the cold hard facts of how the bags has affected our household in SA over the past few years....

We do a weekly shop, of on average, 6 to 8 plastic bags used to contain said items. We have reusable bags, rather than pay 15c per bag at the shop every week. So there is no profit making by the shop in bags sold to us. That is the consumers decision to pay, the shop doesn't force us to buy theirs.

So, we are not taking home approx. 300 plastic bags per year, the majority of which previously ended up in landfill. Yes we would reuse some for other things, but only a minority of them.

In summary:

• We send approx. 300 less plastic bags to the landfill every year
• We don't pay the shop for bags, that is not a compulsory fee(user pays-a bit like speed fines)

Multiply that by how many households there are in SA, and one can see that it is a huge difference in plastic bags potentially finding their way into the waterways etc.

I might be missing something, in all the fuss that it has created in other states in recent times...but I just can't see how the above can't be a good thing??

I think the problem is those bags in SA are not biodegradable. Far better than Vic as an example all in all. IMHO.

Us as consumers ultimately control these corporations. We stop accepting it they will stop using it.

We should have loads more tv programs highlighting how serious the plastic buildup is on our Earth. I believe there is an island of plastic somewhere where it just washes up in one place.

Schools doing things about it, harassing the local members. Something about 50 school kids makes these members listen.

That food waste/plastic show that is on currently is i think the wakeup call a lot of Aussies needed. Seems to be what motivated this recent push for plastic removal and straw removal.

I dont care how its done but i want to see all plastic usage changed. We are truly a wasteful bunch and im as damn guilty as anyone else.

Some radical thinking.

Federally funded state ran recycle plants in every state. Proper state of the art ones. Huge ones.
Use the unemployed as the workforce. Healthy unemployed obviously. Those among us that can work but dont.
Perhaps some criteria attached to that where if fit capable people over a period of time dont seek employment then they are obligated to work at these plants or risk some of there entitlements.
Strong emphasis on facilitating those who are not physically able but mentally able with different criteria to above obviously.

And as a sweetener for the workforce. $2 taken from every ones pay every week and then put into a lotto where one of the workers wins the pot each week.

We should be leaders in Recycling. No reason us Aussies cant really.

Well, last night was Saturday night. Saturday night is fish and chip night. (Or burger and chip night.)
I walked past the local butchery. He had a tempting display of fish. He convinced me I should buy the trevally. (I should have bought the salmon.) Three fillets, please. The butcher placed the trevally in a plastic bag, wrapped the plastic bag in paper, then put the parcel in another plastic bag.
Overkill, I thought.
I remember when fish and meat was placed on a small square of grease proof paper and wrapped in paper.
That's what we need to GET BACK TO!
Brown paper supermarket bags. Cardboard boxes.
Grow more forests for harvesting for paper manufacturing.
If we need something reusable, hemp bags.
Grow more hemp to make a cloth and thread to make the bags.
When disposed, paper and hemp will rot down in landfill, as opposed to "biodegrade". When plastic "biodegrades"' it just breaks down into smaller and smaller bits. It doesn't rot, decompose.

So many aussies with third world ****hole mentality. Looking at things only on the superficial.

Something wrong with our education system

Replacing disposable plastic bags with ones that take much longer to breakdown and more energy to produce etc which the customer pays for is just horse **** and increased profits for the big retailers.
I remember when the every retailer was happy to give you service for your business and pack paper shopping bags for you.
Every one is missings the point ..............paper shopping bags, tried and proven, degrade to friendly organic material, or can be recycled in existing centres and comes from renewable sources or a recycled one.
Get real people this plastic bag thing is greed and nothing else.
WHERE ARE THE PAPER SHOPPING BAGS.
I add the local auto place is supplying good quality quick degradable shopping type bags to work with parts in them.
The big shopping chains are not looking at this either......profit and greed.