5p charge for plastic bags from October 2015 to cut usage

[turbobloke]

marshalla said:

0000 said:

It seems there's such a thing as biodegradable plastic bags and other countries have made these mandatory for bags intended for short term use.

It won't raise any money, but isn't it a better solution?

They still need to be manufactured and distributed in large quantities.

Which provides jobs in all sorts of ways, in this case, from production of e.g. casein bags. Bags so produced would be put to use as needed items.

Or are manufacturing and transport now inherently evil per se?

Pharmaceuticals that save countless lives still need to be manufactured and distributed in large quantities. A lot of those end up in our drinking water. Nice. I'd suggest a 5p tax on pharmas and polluted peeing but some loon in parliament might actually do it - they've already put one on bags.

[Eric Mc]

turbobloke said:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing//topic.asp?h=0&...

With thanks to the shiny new PH search function

Smileys are now OK again as Eric Mc uses them, praise be

Back on topic...again...but not expecting it to continue...

Have we moved on from here, where MPs held that our forthcoming Plastic Bag 'tax' was a mess:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/06...

Whenever I need someone to look stuff up on this internet thingy, I now know who's the master. Well done - a gold star for "Internet Searching Skills". You can now proceed onto the next step - which is "Smileys and how to use them wisely and effectively".

[turbobloke]

Anyway...

Did this really emanate from the orifice of Nick Clegg? Entirely in keeping with his uninformed zealotry if so.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservat...

[technodup]

I just think taxing plastic bags and separating waste et al are token moves to make us appear to care about the environment.

We're a tiny island on this planet, with a relatively tiny population. In other words it doesn't matter a fk what we do, while the US, India, China are addicted to oil, building coal power stations, burning plastics to retrieve metals, dumping allsorts in watercourses etc etc.

If the government wanted to do something useful they'd target the manufacturers to encourage/force biodegradable packagings, smaller packaging etc. It must be easier to change the habits of hundreds or thousands of the big players than tens of millions of us. But again in relation to India's billion what good will it actually do?

Ultimately it's just not a subject I have any concern over. And if that makes me a then so be it.

[Eric Mc]

So, we don't have to care then? We're off the hook and we can do what we like?

That's brilliant.

[turbobloke]

Eric Mc said:

So, we don't have to care then?

Care about what? Litter - yes. Then, after that, we pay for litter to be cleared to mitigate the effects of thoughtless people.

Eric Mc said:

We're off the hook...

Off the hook over what? If you mean the evidence-free dogma around "carbons" aka carbon dioxide, then yes and we were never on the hook, fairytales notwithstanding.

Litter, not off the hook if we drop litter.

Eric Mc said:

...and we can do what we like?

I like driving well-sorted cars with V8s and turbocharged flat 6s, eating Sunday roast, indulging in PH fun and games, hill walking, nookie, it seems that I can still do all of those (and more) which I like. Was it something else?

[Eric Mc]

So your only definition of "waste" is "litter"?

That's a bit narrow, isn't it.

What do YOU actually do at home? Do you spend your time ranting at the dustbins?

I can visualise a Basil Fawlty type scenario with TB raging at his green, brown and blue bins - probably shouting that they deserve a good thrashing. Of course, when finished administering said thrashing, he'd have to make sure any branches or twigs used for the thrashing were put into the brown bin marked "Garden Waste".

(I've just finished putting loads of leaves and branches in our garden waste bin following a major hedge trimming exercise - so I've got greenery on the brain at the moment).

[turbobloke]

Eric Mc said:

So your only definition of "waste" is "litter"?

That's a bit narrow, isn't it.

Having checked back, I didn't see any post of mine where I defined anything, least of all that, in that way.

Eric Mc said:

What do YOU actually do at home? Do you spend your time ranting at the dustbins?

TMI, but in that specific matter, no.

Eric Mc said:

I can visualise a Basil Fawlty type scenario with TB raging at his green, brown and blue bins - probably shouting that they deserve a good thrashing.

Enjoy! We don't have anything like that, just a green wheelie bin and boxy thing for all recyclables.

Eric Mc said:

(I've just finished putting loads of leaves and branches in our garden waste bin following a major hedge trimming exercise - so I've got greenery on the brain at the moment).

Our local Council invested in thousands of brown bins for garden waste, with the intention of 'selling' them off at £25 a pop. In a town with population exceeding 100,000 at the time of writing I've seen 2 in use, and when visiting the local tip (now aka recycling centre ho ho ho) I've seen a pen with thousands of unsold bins languishing as a reminder of Council foolishness in kow towing to the Green Blob. That's a large mountain of brown.....taxpayers' money, wasted.

[Eric Mc]

Plenty of people here use their brown bins. It'd be a real pain without them - having to make multiple trips to the local waste centre and all the time that entails as well as wasting fuel etc. I can think of better things to do in my car than sit in a queue at the local tip.

[turbobloke]

Eric Mc said:

Plenty of people here use their brown bins. It'd be a real pain without them - having to make multiple trips to the local waste centre and all the time that entails as well as wasting fuel etc. I can think of better things to do in my car than sit in a queue at the local tip.

Same here, the local tip is a tip.

However, apart from the two brown bins I've seen, a neighbour claims to have seen another one elsewhere in the town. So it's not that bad really.

[Eric Mc]

Two wise people at least.

Our tip is actually very well managed. It keeps winning awards ( yes - there are Academy type awards for tips).

The problem is that it is too good and people from all over the place, including those who live outside our local authority areas, come to use it. I had my normal Sunday morning cycle this morning and my route took me past the entrance and, as usual, there was a queue outside - on a Sunday morning - in the school holidays.

[Vipers]

We have the landfill stuff in one bin, and paper, cardboard, tins and plastic stuff in another.

But if you don't drive what on earth do they expect you to do with glass bottles and grass cuttings, neither which shouldn't go in either bin.

[jmorgan]

Grass, mow often, leave cuttings down. Nothing for the bins......

[Eric Mc]

I look on plastic bags as carbon capture.

[Randy Winkman]

Eric Mc said:

When a politician announces that he is going to abolish or cut rules and regulations - be very, very skeptical. The usual trick is to introduce a whole new bunch of rules and regulations which are supposed to simplify the previous rules and regulations but in actual fact make everything more complex.

A very good case is Osborne's recent "simplification" (as he called it) of how dividend income is taxed. It is now so "simple" that even tax experts are struggling to work out EXACTLY how these new rules really work.

As a civil servant with experience of all this red tape challenge stuff I'd say that's probably because the political pressure is to reduce the numbers of regulations and amount of guidance rather than the burdens from them.

[technodup]

Eric Mc said:

So, we don't have to care then? We're off the hook and we can do what we like?

In effect, yes. On a world level we cannot make any meaningful difference so all that's left is setting an example to others. And I'm not sure anyone else really pays any attention to us any more.

If I don't buy into the climate change hype here what chance have we got persuading loggers in Brazil or coal miners in China where it's critical to their livelihoods?

[JensenA]

[redacted]

[R1 Indy]

Vipers said:

We have the landfill stuff in one bin, and paper, cardboard, tins and plastic stuff in another.

But if you don't drive what on earth do they expect you to do with glass bottles and grass cuttings, neither which shouldn't go in either bin.

Do you not have a green bin for garden waste?

We have two bins a black one for normal waste, and a green one for garden waste, collected on alternative weeks

There is also a box for glass bottles etc which is meant to go out with the black bin, but I just shove it all in the black bin as there is room.

[227bhp]

Vipers said:

We have the landfill stuff in one bin, and paper, cardboard, tins and plastic stuff in another.

But if you don't drive what on earth do they expect you to do with glass bottles and grass cuttings, neither which shouldn't go in either bin.

Compost your garden waste - i've never used my brown bin since I was given it.
If you actually have no means whatsoever of getting a bottle to a bottle bin then you probably make up about 1% of the population.

[Vipers]

R1 Indy said:

Vipers said:

We have the landfill stuff in one bin, and paper, cardboard, tins and plastic stuff in another.

But if you don't drive what on earth do they expect you to do with glass bottles and grass cuttings, neither which shouldn't go in either bin.

Do you not have a green bin for garden waste?

We have two bins a black one for normal waste, and a green one for garden waste, collected on alternative weeks

There is also a box for glass bottles etc which is meant to go out with the black bin, but I just shove it all in the black bin as there is room.

We used to have a separate box for glass which was collected with the box for paper with the regular bin, now we are expected to take glass and grass down to ASDA. We can use the bottle banks 24/7 but it's only on Saturdays that a refuge truck turns up for garden waste. No big deal for me but if I didn't have a car, I don't know what you are expected to do with it.