Plastic bag ban...... meaningful initiative or just a feel good stunt?

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Mrs GPH just read part of an online post on another social media platform to me, where the question was asked, “Why are Coles banning single use plastic bags ? And then giving away plastic toys which will end up in land fill and the oceans” .
I did think that banning these supposedly bio degradable bags and yet continue to wrap all manner of food (unnecessarily) in plastic cling film and bags, all set on (single use) polystyrene trays, was somewhat pointless and probably counter productive.
But what is the alternative ?
Being somewhat older than a lot of the population today, I have memories of what shopping for food and meat was all about before the proliferation of supermarkets
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure supermarkets have made life so much better for many people .....
So as a young lad growing up in suburban Auckland in the 1960’s I still remember the regular visit into our street of the fruit and veg truck, and even a fisho and butcher truck, milk was delivered fresh daily as was bread and the news paper . My mum would take her basket into the street and buy with cash (no Credit card and fly buys back then) her needs for that day or the next few days .
If you were. A working family I.e. mum and dad both working, there was a corner store (Dairy in NZ parlance) a green grocer, butcher and baker usually within walking distance (or at least what we called walking distance in the 50’s and 60’s) for those last minute staples, 1/2 lb of sausages, a bag of spuds (unwashed and odd shaped) or an extra pint of milk for that last minute rice pudding. I would wander down to said purveyors of fine foods, armed with a string bag made by natives in the Solomon Islands where my parents lived as missionaries for the first few years of my life on the planet. The potatoes were bagged in brown paper, the sausages in butchers paper and all placed into my string bag.
Even fish and chips were wrapped in a layer of grease proof or butchers paper but with an outer layer of news print to finish the job.
We recycled before we even knew what it meant, plastic wasn’t missed because it wasn’t needed, milk came in glass bottles and you placed the empties in your milk box / letter box for collection each morning 9bedore sunrise). Bread for school lunches was wrapped in a waxed paper, delivered fresh Every morning . Life was simple and in the opinion of this writer, somewhat better than now.
I am like most people, guilty of the most horrendous of plastic use crimes, I have had to make a conscious effort to NOT use plastic, and it’s bloody hard.
I buy lemons and just carry them loose to the checkout, but beans are a bit more difficult,
When the supermarket made its first appearance in NZ , they used double layered paper bags to put grocery items in. I’m not sure when that all went south, but it seems to me to be (maybe) the lesser of the two evils.
I am finding that when I “think” I need something for the house, I am now visiting my local second hand /antique store, I have managed to (buy) recycle some great stuff in recent times, and all of reasonably high quality for a much lower price.
Forgive the ramblings of an old fart living in the past, but I suspect enough is enough, and we all need to do our bit, even if it seem futile.
 
Both meaningful and a commercial virtue-signal I think. Paper bags are out because they come from the evil forestry industry.

You can blame we good folk of Coles Bay in Tas for starting this - well over 15 years ago plastic bags got voluntarily banned form the town and it gave us fantastic publicity as a tourist town. Just had to remember to bring some from home for the bait ...
 
What plastic bag ban? You would think Woolworths would have to follow Coles in offering plastics bags for free indefinitely from now on and it was like there was never a ban.
 
They are banned in SA so Coles etc had no choice. But it’s also virtue signaling. However we MUST stop using so much plastic but the culprit isn’t the shopping bags. But the plastic that comes on everything we buy. It’s horrendous now.
 
I was reading today that Coles is going to keep giving plastic bags "indefinitely". What a whiney bunch we Sydney people are - other towns and states seem to have managed BYO bags without carrying on like their home property value hit double figures.

You only need to forget them 2 or 3 times before the habit of remembering them kicks in.

Im really disappointed that Coles is backtracking on the bag issue. They should have stuck to their guns and followed through.
 
I was reading today that Coles is going to keep giving plastic bags "indefinitely". What a whiney bunch we Sydney people are - other towns and states seem to have managed BYO bags without carrying on like their home property value hit double figures.

You only need to forget them 2 or 3 times before the habit of remembering them kicks in.

Im really disappointed that Coles is backtracking on the bag issue. They should have stuck to their guns and followed through.
That quite pathetic really. I do think that the timing with their little plastic toys was poor.

And really given they used to give the bags away and now charge 15 cents, so a cost savings of sorts,, a far more accepting proposal would have been to still charge 15 cents but give 10 cents to a reputable organization dealing with environmental issues. But nah, they kept the money.
 
The single use bags notwithstanding, what I want to know is why neither Coles nor woollies are phasing out the other plastics.
i find it amazing and confusing as to why Coles fresh food section will have 3 oranges on a polystyrene tray covered in cling wrap! i am fairly sure the special eco friendly wrap (Skin) so thoughtfully provided by the orange would be protection enough!
I am beginning to wonder if there needs to be a more concerted ground level protest by ordinary consumers , complaining directly to the store manager about these ridiculous ideas around packaging.
I know there are some things which by virtue of their unique needs require the flexibility and convenience of plastic packaging , Frozen peas for example, unless there is some bright spark out there with an alternative solution, i cant see that changing anytime soon.
I guess it will continue for as long as we allow it.
 
The single use plastic bag ban is entirely virtue signalling and sadly the production of plastic has gone up not down after the ban and all those plastic will eventually be disposed and in greater and greater volumes each year. There is no jurisdiction in the world where the disposition of plastic by any method has gone down.

The single plastic bag SUPB ban is like fighting one little skirmish and saying you have won a world war.

In the hospitals the material used in the green reusable bags are used as disposable sterile instrument wraps, privacy curtains, and now disposable operating theatre scrubs, and disposable shoe covers and caps. The privacy curtains are thrown out after a certain period of time and not reused. Imagine a 30 sq m sheet of the same material used to make the green bags per bed space thrown out every few months. Thousands of sq m of the stuff are thrown out each day from a single hospital.

Then just about every surgical instrument (except the simple ones) have high density plastic which are also single use and thrown out. What is thrown out would make your eyes water. Now none of these would make it into the oceans but they contribute to landfill or incinerated. What plastic we save with the single use bags would not come close to the amount of plastic we produce for the higher density plastics.

Then in all those places where the SUPB is banned for some time, have they since then banned the plastics which are really damaging?. One would think that is a jurisdiction is serious about plastics they would also ban the really damaging plastics - the high density stuff like plastic mouldings - bottle tops, straws, pens, cup covers, and other such plastic mouldings. The fact that they don't says volumes about their seriousness about this issue.

Last night I went to Woolies, I had a look at the veggies section. Potatoes in 1kg bags, half celery wrapped in plastic, 1kg apples in plastic tubs, etc etc. Meat in plastic trays and film wrapped, leaf salad in sealed plastic bags, grapes in plastic bags, cherry tomatoes in plastic containers and on and on.
Then go to the cosmetics section. lots of high density plastics - none will be recycled.

Virtue signalling? Yes
Hypocrites? Yes
Faux morality? Yes
 
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The watermelon or pineapple finger slices in plastic and foam does my head in and lets not forget the peeled mandarin under plastic and foam tray. :rolleyes:
 
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i find it amazing and confusing as to why Coles fresh food section will have 3 oranges on a polystyrene tray covered in cling wrap! i am fairly sure the special eco friendly wrap (Skin) so thoughtfully provided by the orange would be protection enough

In the USA they have a product called peeled oranges.
They peel off the original packaging wrap (the skin) then place each individual peeled orange into a protective transparent plastic container. 1 plastic container per orange.
Then precut apples in a bag for the really time poor parents so the kids can take them to school?

GPH... it’s just a start :) Other plastics use will probably come under scrutiny in due course.
Thats the problem. Jurisdictions which have banned SUPB have not moved in any significant way to ban other plastics.

The Return and Earn R&E thought bubble by the NSW government is another Virtue signalling. We are only allowed to R&E certains plastics if they have a barcode. And then only certain types of barcodes. The majority of plastics dont have barcodes. What a stupid idea. At my local woolies there are plastic bottles which cant be R&E. What happens. Well some people just leave it there - in a kitchen rubbish bag dumped next to a Wheelie bin full of similar items
 
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in the AAmirals club right now each piece of fruit has been individually carefully wrapped in cling film. Because you know, like, omg, all the germs right?

Haha they must think that AAdmirals Club members must not wash their hands:eek:
Perhaps the patrons on the Flagship side of the Club are more hygienic?:D After all they have nicer toilets and restrooms
 
So perhaps clingfilm over an piece of fruit as a measure of hygiene. How would one then unwrap the fruit and then handle the fruit without the fruit becoming contaminated by whatever is on the clingfilm:confused:
 
i would rather the airline (and others) clean the tray tables and similar surfaces on the airplane.

Question for cabin crew:

Do the Surfaces in the Galley and the food trolleys get disinfected?
How about the toilet doors? Really washing hands then having to touch a contaminated toilet door and assuming hands are clean?
 
i would rather the airline (and others) clean the tray tables and similar surfaces on the airplane.

Question for cabin crew:

Do the Surfaces in the Galley and the food trolleys get disinfected?
How about the toilet doors? Really washing hands then having to touch a contaminated toilet door and assuming hands are clean?

Oh, cabin crew told me a long time ago never to touch the door handle with bare hands! Always use a tissue or towel.
 
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