Help/Save the planet?

Question

Here in the UK almost every purchase is delivered in a plastic bag.

Why not print out an A4 poster declaring that "no plastic bags will be issued with purchases unless requested. This is our small contribution to the environment."

Fly post them on every closed shop door and see what happens or ask for permission.

Shopkeepers should love it! It's one less expense.

Answers only after you've tried it!

Answer 1

how about not wiping our bums with toilet roll instead?

Answer 2

brillant idea, use recycled paper or make sure when you go shopping to not use plastic.

Answer 3

The worse places for bag use are Supermarkets that deliver to your door, because the packers are told to collect each order as fast as possible each item is thrown in its own bag instead of filling a bag before starting a new one. My brother delivers fir Tescos and said that he has previously delivered bag with as little as one item in.

Also shops with electricals say about 20 tvs all switched on that really gets to me, can they not just put them on as requested.

Answer 4

Its better to carry a cloth bag instead. In India many of the shops and markets stopped delivering in plastic bags. I personally experienced it and follow the same as I am working with the Apex body of India in Pollution Control. Our organization has undertaken many mass awareness programs to reduce the use polyethene bags in my city. Also on several ocassions we distributed cloths bags with punch lines. "WHY POLYTHENE" USE ME"

Try the same in your city I hope it can ignite the minds of pepole. Hope you may find your city CLEAN & GREEN always.

Answer 5

Yes, It's good to do a bit of Direct Action. You do need to weigh up what you are likely to achieve as opposed to cheesing people off.

Direct Action is better used for bringing things to public attention as opposed to working on established issues. If done well it is also a good way of protesting with meagre resources and starting communication with offending parties.

Answer 6

sorry i diden't try it but its a great idea!

exsept....

almost everything its made out of trees and such paper,

plactic (IDK)

pencils

books

its almost imposuble

but your a good kid

Answer 7

what would you rather have? Paper?

It's well known that paper bags take 3x the space to transport - so you need 3x as many deliveries with CO emitting trucks - not to mention the actual process making the paper. (trees are kinda useful, too?)

Where I think the bigger problem is are disposable glass and plastic bottles (soda, water, beer, etc). What I see viable in the market would be bringing back the glass bottle deposit system. We used to have a soda store here in Wisconsin called "Sparkling Springs" where you would be a dozen or so glass bottles. At the store, you could have the bottles filled up with any of a large variety of types and flavors of soda and root beer. When you're done, you can bring the bottles back for the deposit amount or reuse them.  I think this concept would work well in the major supermarkets for a number of reasons - the biggest is it encourages people to return to a specific store - and it would be environmentally friendly. Plus, who doesn't prefer drinks in glass bottles?

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If you're going to take "one small step" you better make sure that it's really a step forward and not a step sideways or backward. Our society did a better job with recycling during World War 2 than it does today. I guess the necessity of environmentalism isn't readily apparant to most people.

Answer 8

OMG! I've been thinking about this too. I live in California, and whenever at the supermarket when they check out, the person puts like one item per bag! Me and my mom are always really mad.... I really don't get how they HAVE to use SOSOSOSOSO much bags just for a FEW things? Trader Joes is great, they use paper bags, and if you brought u'r own, you get to enter a raffle.

Answer 9

instead of making posters, try asking shop owners to suggest to their buyers to bring cloth shopping bags. Bags such as these are good for many uses, and can often hold much more then the average plastic bag.

Answer 10

They should bring there own bags when they go shopping that way the bag will get reused and more plastic bags wont be made thus helping the enviroment