Carriers
Posted: Mon 7 August, 2006 Filed under: Green, Sweary, Thoughts 6 Comments »First of all, it’d help if when you do the (supposedly greener, as you’re not driving to the supermarket, and they can do multiple deliveries on one run) shopping online, they don’t deliver everything in fucking plastic bags. Particularly when you end up with so many bags with just one bloody item in them. That’d help a lot more.
And why not “just” make bags that actually, you know, biodegrade? Rather than lasting for the next 150 years in a sodding landfill? Waitrose had them at least fifteen years ago, and they were photodegradeable – slight flaw, as on sunny days they did have a nasty habit of breaking before you got home – but still, it was done fifteen sodding years ago.
If Tesco (and all the others) were actually bothered, instead of just paying lip service to the entire Green thing, then they’d buy in degradeable plastic bags, or do a far better job of promoting their “bag for life” scheme. (which seems to have done a bit of a disappearing act of late) But as it is, well, it’s just a buzzword, a theme for the moment, and so long as they’re seen to be paying lip service to it, and so long as it doesn’t actually cost them a fucking penny, then they’ll be all for this kind of bullshit PR stunt…
A certain supermarket which may or may not be the subject of the above post has an appalling social compliance system and may or may not be one of my most irritating clients.
What happened to the brown bags, Safeway used to do them. All but vanished now. At least they are EASILY recycled.
The Co-Op has had biodegradable plastic bags for ages. But perhaps the best way to encourage people not to use so many bags isn’t to offer loyalty points, but to charge [and charge a lot] for each bag — they did this in Ireland and it had an almost immediate effect.
Agrees with David about the Co-op (generally a market leader on all things ethical), but the issue could be made simpler by using brown paper bags possibly like those Gordon mentions or by bringing back the old ‘grocery bag’ that ppl like ur gran used …. hey this is my bandwagon and I could rant for days but i would like to say one thing – those wasteful, generally environmentally unfriendly, irritating, overweight scumbags across the Atlantic use paper bags for groceries, WHY CANT WE?
Or could we change the way we shop? Local shops are dying out because of the ‘convenience factor’ of supermarkets – silly me thought convenience stores were the ones at the bottom of your road. Walking to the shop(s) uses no petrol and less resources generally, plus it’s blubber busting exercise too.
Lyle, keep on following this kind of issue, it’s good to see someone who actually gives a flying sh** and it’s nice to know someone else thinks along the same lines as me.
Yeah but the thing about you Lyle you don’t know what it’s like. You don’t have kids so you can bother your otherwise empty life with unimportant stuff about plastic bags. If you had kids you’d understand how important it is to get lots of free plastic bags from Tescos and not have to bother going to different shops for Calpol, lottery ticket, and lightbulbs. Besides, the thing about Tesco is you can get any fruit and veg you want from anywhere in the world at any time of year. And chicken dippers as well, so it’s really handy if you’ve got children but you wouldn’t understand you’re one of those selfish people who don’t have children.