Plastic carrier bags

PK · Post by PK » 13 Jul 2007, 09:48

Very topical at the moment. We use these to line our kitchen pedal bin. If we wanted to try and eliminate them altogether what are the alernatives?

ged · Post by **ged** » 13 Jul 2007, 17:55

:mrgreen: canvas bags,string bags!
atb
ged )t'

Post by **wendy** » 13 Jul 2007, 18:18

re use them ?

AnnaB · Post by **AnnaB** » 13 Jul 2007, 18:38

Hi PK
Wash the bin??

I've now got 3 cotton bags which I didn't pay for. Gratis from the shops for a certain spend - I still have to have some plastic bags but not nearly as many as before.

I have asked other shopkeepers to do likewise, get the people to spend more money, reward them with a reusable bag and in the long term they save on buying plastic bags.

PK · Post by PK » 13 Jul 2007, 19:00

Bringing home the shopping in re-usable bags is not a problem. Using a string bag for lining the kitchen bin probably won't work :wink: Not use anything at all and wash the bin out? A couple of times a day?.... Whose turn? (Its not easy being green!) I need think a bit more on this one.

Post by **wendy** » 13 Jul 2007, 21:42

I went to Primark (c)

the other day, and they were using brown paper carrier bags. I did congratulate the girl on the desk. Hopefully every one will go back to them.
Wendy

AnnaB · Post by **AnnaB** » 13 Jul 2007, 21:50

We haven't got one of those 'P' yet - have been promised one in the autumn - must be very imminent!

Post by **Richard** » 13 Jul 2007, 21:55

I've racked my brain to think of how.......

How did we do it before plastic bags?

ged · Post by **ged** » 14 Jul 2007, 03:08

:mrgreen: Hi Richard,
My mum had 1 bag for shopping,an old leather thing from the war years!She went shopping every day cept sunday,we ate less but more healthily?She had a budget of 8 bob a day to feed 5 of us and we never went hungry!
Different times back then eh?

Willow · Post by **Willow** » 14 Jul 2007, 21:57

My mum and my grandma before her used shopping bags or string bags...

Post by Mo » 15 Jul 2007, 07:09

My council collects the rubbish in plastic bin bags, so I line my kitchen bin with that and then tie it up and put it out on Monday night.
It's not smelly as I have a compost bin which gets washed out from the water butt when it's emptied, and the plastic and tins get washed out for recycling. The hens eat a lot of the food scraps anyway.

Post by **Richard** » 15 Jul 2007, 07:29

I think it's down to the fact that we simply throw away more stuff than we used to.

'In the old days' nothing was sold in plastic or the dreaded shrink wrap. You brought it and put it in the larder etc.

It's amazing how quickly, even if you feed chooks with waste and have a compost heap, you fill up a bin bag.
It's the size of things like plastic milk bottles and plastic trays which results in mountains of bags lining our streets on the night before the Bin Men come.

But an earlier post was right. You'd put your rubbish in the old steel bin, the Dustman would empty it, then you'd clean it.

This shows how much a consumer and 'lazy' nation we've become I guess.

heebiejeebie · Post by **heebiejeebie** » 29 Jul 2007, 06:48

I can put compostable stuff on the compost heap
cardboard packaging becomes allotment mulch or footpath
tough garden waste and a limited amount of cardboard goes in the brown bin
glass, paper and cans go in the kerbside recycling boxes
plastic bottles I can take to the recycling at the supermarket, same goes for textiles (although we generally get rid of clothes when they're in such a state that oxfam wouldn't want them)
we don't waste food )c+

(much)

So how on earth do we still manage to fill the wheelie bin?

I'm sure it must be 50% cat litter and 50% plastic trays from food packaging (soft fruits).

TassieDev · Post by **TassieDev** » 16 Jan 2008, 07:39

hey why is (or was) that topical - are they looking at getting rid of plastic bags there too?
here in aus they are going on about it right now
im talking about supermarket bags that they put your groceries in...

i just shake my head in wonder as i walk along the aisle looking at all the different sized plastic bags available for purchase, look at all the products with completely unneccessary plastic packaging (like those damn packets of chips with 25 little tiny packets of chips inside - grrrrr) and think 'what the???'

i know you have to start somewhere, but how is it helpful to ban plastic shopping bags when all this is going on? i use them for putting rubbish in - especially things like kitty litter that you really dont want to be putting in your garbage bin unbagged - do you ?????

i really dont think people are going to stop lining their kitchen bins etc with plastic bags just because the free ones are banned. i bet the manufacturers of the plastic bags for sale are rubbing their hands together with glee.

i could wash my bin out for some types of waste, but using all that water and washing liquid/disinfectant is an issue too. i'd also probably need to buy at least one additional plastic bin so i would have one to use while the other is drying.

and the so called 'green bags' they promote here to take to the shops instead of using plastic are themselves made out of plastic!!! sure they can be used more than once, but for goodness sake couldnt they promote a bag made of natural products eg hemp or something?

and the 'helpful hint' from some guy on the news the other night (from the conservation council or someone) was to 'wrap your garbage in newspaper then put it in the bin'............. well much as i'd love to go out to my outside bin 10 times a day i dont buy newspapers as they aren't necessary and i think a waste of resources!!!!! Sheesh!!!!!!

Lastly what about the people who don't have rubbish collection - not sure how common that is in the UK - but at our farm we will have to take our own rubbish to the tip. i'm afraid garbage bins dont fit in my car, you need to put it in bags.... so it seems i will be purchasing them in future.... great.....

This probably should be sent to my pollie not posted here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emmamoo · Post by **Emmamoo** » 07 Feb 2008, 18:22

I have to say that there are tons of plastic carrier bags in my cupboard, but only through force of habit. I should take em down to sainsbury's for recycling. They've become very thin now, which for green reasons is a great idea but then the amount of times they have split on my walk home. I saw some string bags for sale somewhere the other day, can't remember where it was, but I thought about buying some. My mum used to have some back in the 80's that had groovy beads on, I think they were from the 60's actually and looked trÃ©s cool.

I don't drive as I've never desired to learn, but it would be much easier to bring stuff home. However, I quite like the idea of paper bags like they have in the states, but again that would be a pain in the bum getting them home, plus trying to bring my 3 year old along too.