31 August 2009

Should Plastic Bags be Banned from the ACT?

| Iain Morriss
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An online discussion forum has just been launched by the ACT Department of Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Water inviting the community to have a say about whether plastic bags should be banned, what alternatives there are and whether a levy should be applied to the use of bags.

The site is at http://www.actplasticbags.net.au

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Really won’t make much of a difference if we are not given plastic bags at checkouts, as per pollution

rant mode on

today i was asked if i wanted to pay an extra 20 cents for a bag in officeworks, to cart away the 55 dollars worth of small stationery items. i then engaged in a pointless discussion on why cant they give me a bag since i just spent 55 dollars, and where is the sign saying i need to buy a bag or bring my own.

if i KNEW a bag was needed, i would have taken my briefcase in, and loaded it up on the way out.

very irritating. 20 cents isn’t that much in the grand scheme, but i object to being stung for extra revenue. i doubt a plastic bag costs 20 cents. im sure retailers are hoping that the govt encourages a ‘pay for bag’ policy.

what a crock. i read the productivity commission report last time this was debated on RA.

im off for a bex and a lie down.

I don’t know about banning them all together – but perhaps a 20 or 30c charge would be enough to make most people use reusables.

The Rep of Ireland introduced a 15c (Euro) in 2002 and it reduced bag consumption by over 90%. The money raised from this was then spent my the government on environmental projects.

You can use any old plasticbag to clean up after a dog – like a breadbag, or the bags magazines come in.
It doesn’t have to be a shopping bag.

I’m amazed at how passionately attached people are to their plakky bags.

They are gone in SA.

What next a ban on bottled water?

emd, plastic bags cost the retailer a couple of cents …

I don’t know why everyone’s stressing so much. You do realise, don’t you, that the cost of the plastic bags handed out at the supermarket is built into the price of the goods in the shop? How do you think the shop owner pays for all those plastic bags?

So if plastic bags are banned, shop owners will probably just switch to providing biodegradable plastic bags and build the cost into the price of their goods just as they do now with the less environmentally friendly bags. Or they will start selling bags (biodegradable or long-term reuse bags) at a small price (like Aldi already do).

If free plastic bags are banned, we will have to buy them for the abovementioned dog poo etc. Fill in the survey, responsible dog owners!

Igglepiggle said :

Nope. But if the government really wants to do something about the volume that goes into landfill, they should collect our recycling bins weekly and the landfill bin fortnightly instead of the other way round! Would increase the volume of recyclables getting recycled.

After a week in the summer, although wrapped, my regular garbage starts to stink and attract flies in less than a week.

Holden Caulfield4:57 pm 31 Aug 09

#14 – I like that idea. Although it may not be suitable for larger families.

Nope. But if the government really wants to do something about the volume that goes into landfill, they should collect our recycling bins weekly and the landfill bin fortnightly instead of the other way round! Would increase the volume of recyclables getting recycled.

barking toad3:02 pm 31 Aug 09

Just got round to reading the comments by ‘Irritable’ on the site of Simon The Sad.

Pretty much sums up everything about this meaningless hippie gesture.

Here is the interesting thing, we reuse plastic bags around the house, either as bin bags, dirty clothing bags for when I travel (which is a lot), dog poo \ nappy bags, or a list of other uses.

Should plastic bags disappear my list of needs above will not change, instead I’ll simply be forced to purchase two bags, one for shopping, and one for the many uses above. Talk about giving the re-use idea the heav hoe…

Actually, there’s two kinds of biodegradable bags. The UV unstable ones are just plastic with a special additive. The truly biodegradable bags are made from cornstarch and are more expensive than epi (UV unstable) bags.

neanderthalsis1:23 pm 31 Aug 09

Banning plastic bags is just another empty gesture that our quasi-socialist government will trot out to show their green credentials. The reality is that this will be played on a much bigger stage than in our little Peoples republic.

It’s like peeing yourself while wearing black trousers, you get a nice warm feeling, no-one else notices anything and all you’re left with is a lingering smell.

Oh for goodness’ sake!

I would like to propose that every whimsical statute that is proposed by governments should require the abolition of a preceding whimsical statute.

Clown Killer1:03 pm 31 Aug 09

Just mandate use of the biodegradeable type.

They’re not actually biodegradable just UV unstable so that they break down into smaller pieces – so there’s just lots of little pieces of plastic as opposed to a single bag – stops the dolphins eating them though.

The reality is that it’s just a token gesture that gives the latte-sipping leafy suburbs eco-mentalists something to feel warm and fuzzy about now that they don’t have the Democrats to vote for.

In reality it’s a waste management issue rather than there being anything inherently wrong with the bag itself.

James-T-Kirk12:41 pm 31 Aug 09

Noooo —- What will I use to put the dog poo into?

barking toad12:37 pm 31 Aug 09

Productivity Commission has already done this to death a few years back and determined the minimal positive environmental impact was far outweighed by the cost. In other words, a token gesture.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy12:13 pm 31 Aug 09

Just mandate use of the biodegradeable type.

Graham Cooke12:01 pm 31 Aug 09

There are people in our community that love extremes. Their answer to anything like this is have a good old ban and force people to conform to their view of the world. I go to the supermarket with my green reusable bags but quite often what I have bought exceeds their capacity and I have to rely on the addition of a plastic bag. Why not ensure these bags are all biodegradable and charge me 10c for my lack of judgement? A gentle prod rather than the big stick.

Holden Caulfield said :

Haha, someone is very irritable over there about the topic.

I can’t see that a ban will change my views on world peace, politics or the footy team I support.

It’s a bit of a non-issue isn’t it?

tidal waves start as ripples.

Holden Caulfield11:16 am 31 Aug 09

Haha, someone is very irritable over there about the topic.

I can’t see that a ban will change my views on world peace, politics or the footy team I support.

It’s a bit of a non-issue isn’t it?

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