From the BBC:
A 7p charge for a plastic carrier bag is expected to be introduced in stores in Wales from spring 2011. The mandatory charge will apply to each single use bag provided by shops and supermarkets. Environment Minister Jane Davidson says it was needed to change shopping habits and cut the number of environmentally damaging bags dumped in landfill sites...
I have little to add to what I said when they first suggested a 20p charge per bag; the correct charge, assuming we wish it to cover the external costs, would be about 0.1p per bag, which is hardly worth collecting, frankly, especially as the total tax burden on the contents of that bag is probably several pounds already.
All That’s Wrong
59 minutes ago
7 comments:
As one of your commenters said on the original post MW, you provide too much commons sense on your blog!
And the administrative cost of implementing and accounting for this 7p levy? And the additional plastic used as these shopping bags will no longer be able to double up as bin-liners? And in this day and age we are unable to produce and use biodegradable bags?
We must of course recognise that this idea was dreamed up by a politician which bears out the adage: garbage in garbage out.
I see a fatal flaw in their wordoligy.
'single use'
I rather like the idea. For a few pence you can seriously irritate the sanctimoneous fuckwits behind you.
Bring it on!
Sir I believe you have perhaps hit on the motivating force behind much of what as paraded as "good for us", except of course it is the sanctimoneus fuckwits who seek to seriously irritate us - our attempts to resist their fuckwittery only convincing them of how much we need to b saved from ourselves ...
The levy has nothing to do with the any cost, environmental or otherwise, of the bag. It's simply there to stop the "they're free, so I'll take more than I need" attitude. Lidl already charge for carrier bags and most Lidl shoppers take their own bags or re-use the boxes the products come in. If all the supermarkets were like Lidl, we wouldn't have this levy.
San Francisco, California, USA, already took it a step further and banned plastic bags altogether. There was a huge write-up in the San Francisco Weekly weekend newspaper back then showing plainly that the real science on the matter showed that paper bags cost more to produce, consumed more forests, cost more to transport, took a larger toll on the environment by way of deforestation and pollution (to manufacture and to transport), took up more bulk in landfills, did not degrade into the soil for decades to centuries, and was in fact more devastating to the environment than were the plastic re-usable bags, which many re-used to contain bio-hazards such as pet droppings and the like. (I just toss my pet droppings directly into the trash - I mean if they want "organic", I may as well give it to them - typhoid, black plague and all, right.)
City council of course ignored the real science and instead demanded conformity to the politically-correct non-science (propaganda + "the debate is over") - thus banned all plastic bags within the city and county of San Francisco.
Since then they have of course gone on to banning the misplacement of recyclables into the wrong sorting bin ($1,000 fine issued by the Garbage Police plus a red-letter stapled to your front door to indicate to the neighbors your sin), outdoor smoking bans ($500 fines issued by the Smoke Police, which are citizen informants planted throughout the districts who are paid for their efforts if they wish to continue their welfare benefits), tobacco retailing bans (at all city pharmacies), tobacco retail license banning (until there are no retailers left) and soon, beginning this year, outdoor smoking bans within ALL outdoor city areas, including seating areas outside cafes and bars, all sidewalks and inside peoples' once privately owned/rented homes. (I spoke with someone recently about this subject, a heavy smoker, who is of course more concerned about the private goings-on of Jenna Bush, that "bad person" the left-wing propaganda says to "worry" about - but who is still obtuse to the real tyranny right in front of his nose, so I don't expect things to change anytime soon as "the people", they are sleeping.)
So the plastic bag banning here has been a "huge success" which contravenes the actual science of the matter and has since moved on to the banning of most everything else - including outdoor alcohol bans at all outdoor events, even street fairs - which are now boring, smoke and alcohol "free" and suffering patronage.
To make up for the economic consequences, the city has since demanded entire blocks be cordoned off on weekends to be devoted to "Health Ways" instead of "highways" and everyone forced out to go through mandatory exercise regimes and "health" and "environment/green" indoctrination seminars - whether they choose to or not (a little like Red China under Chairman Mao).
There is always the city paid citizen-informants on patrol, to make sure everyone falls into line.
Make sure to visit San Francisco and spend lots of tourist dollars for this kind of sh*t, because that's what they need so badly, now that the tourists stopped coming to see the "huge success", including their recently taxpayer funded 10' high no-smoking signs adorning the sides of buses, compliments of the budget-bloated department of "health" whose budget exceeds that of the department of "global warming" they have set up since last year too.
It's such a treat. Really.
I'm still using them, no matter what.
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