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Co-op ditches plastic bags
1:22pm Thursday 13th March 2008
A major supermarket chain has announced its West Sussex stores will replace its plastic bags with biodegradeable carriers.
The Co-op is to introduce a GM-free corn starch bag from the end of March.
The switch follows a successful trial at the Co-op store in Overton, Hampshire, when the town went plastic bag free in November last year.
The new 5p corn starch bags will become available at the convenience chain's stores throughout West Sussex from March 31.
Co-op was the first company to introduce the new type of carrier bag in Britain.
Customers will also have the option of purchasing a Co-op Fairtrade cotton bag for life for 99p, instead of using traditional plastic bags.
Ted Merdler, Marketing Manager, at Southern Co-operatives said: "We are delighted to be able to encourage a reduction in the amount of plastic bags used.
"The Co-op has always been a pioneer in ethical retailing, for instance by decreasing the amount of packaging used for a number of our own-brand products.
"Given the support from our customers for Overton's plastic bag free initiative, we are convinced that shoppers in our other stores will agree this is an important step forward for the environment and be happy to pay 5p for the bag, on which we make no profit."
The corn starch used to make the new bags is industrial grade and grown on land which has been set aside for that specific purpose. All inks used are purely vegetable based.
Like traditional plastic bags, they are strong and can be reused for shopping. They can be composted at their end of their life though, rather than go into landfill.
The new bags have EU certification for compostability and leave no contaminants in the finished compost.
Brighton and Hove City Council has announced it will hold a summit to call on supermarkets to do more to cut the use of carrier bags.
It follows a bid launched last October to rid Brighton and Hove of plastic bags.
Council leader Brian Oxley said: "Supermarkets need to make the alternatives to plastic bags more available and they could really do more promoting them.
"It really needs a push from the supermarkets to show what is available and the alternatives should be at the most competitive prices."
Brighton and Hove City Council recently launched its Clean City, Clean Sea campaign which aims to reduce the use of excessive packaging, including plastic bags, in the city.
The authority is currently developing its own 'bag for life' using material from recycled plastic bags.
The bags are being designed by Natasha Coverdale who has previously worked for clients including Harrods and Calvin Klein.
Asda in Brighton has already moved to cut plastic bags by not handing them out automatically at the checkout.
Should platic bags be banned? Joint the debate below.
Your Say YourArgus
Kelly, Worthing says...
1:33pm Thu 13 Mar 08
censored wrote:So how am I supposed to get my shopping home without any bag at all?
A step forward but doesn't solve the problem. They're still a virtually useless item, taking time, effort and energy to make and deliver. The target should be no bags at all. The only difference is that these will only blow around in hedges for about 10 years before disappearing.
rb, brighton says...
1:41pm Thu 13 Mar 08
biodegradable is not the answer, they still take energy to make and transport, will still end up clogging up waterways and landfill where they certainly don't disappear overnight, some of them have dangerous materials in them to help them degrade (oh the irony), and alot of this "bio" hogwash comes from arable land needed for food production... imagine growing acres and acres of corn only for it to be turned into carrier bags. this drives up your food costs too! just another time-wasting device and not what we need to make any impact on the problems we face!
GreenBrigade, says...
1:41pm Thu 13 Mar 08
phil, lancs says...
2:20pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Kelly, Worthing says...
2:35pm Thu 13 Mar 08
So what bag(s) am I supposed to take with me if they have all been banned?
Flat Foot Soozie, Brunswick Square says...
2:49pm Thu 13 Mar 08
phil wrote:The plastic bags are not "free". The cost of supplying them is factored into shops' profit margins.
The average household is supposed to be given 800 carrier bags per year, about 16 per week.the average household can consist of 2 adults, 2 children a dog a cat and a goldfish.The average way in which these bags are used is as follows 7-9 go in the kitchen bin,1 goes in the bathroom bin,1 goes in the lounge bin,2 are used for kids dirty football boots and kit used at school and wet swimming gear, the other 3 will be used as poop scoops when taking the dog out for a walk.If these single use/ 1 trip free shooping bags are no longer available then the average family will have no option but to buy pedal bin liners to do the same job.So how will banning carrier bags reduce plastic going to landfill and or reduce the amount of oil going to landfill a pedal bin liner is truly a single use bag. Please will all you budding environmentalists look at facts and use logic otherwise we may never save the planet.
rb, brighton says...
2:50pm Thu 13 Mar 08
i don't claim to have all the answers but some of it seems to be common sense, it seems to me alot of us have gotten way to used to the 'disposable lifestyle' and doing things any differently now, anything that takes any effort or imagination, is too complex to even consider. people managed before plastic came along and guess what, they can manage now.
Andrea, Brighton says...
2:51pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Rick H, Hove says...
2:51pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Kelly wrote:How about using 'bags for life'? A fabric bag like what Mother used to have? A shopping trolley (ditto)? Card-board boxes? The options are all there if one is able to think a little more outside the box (or should that be bag?)
carry a bag(s) with you, it's not that difficult. So what bag(s) am I supposed to take with me if they have all been banned?
censored, Brighton says...
2:55pm Thu 13 Mar 08
I carry a cotton bag most of the time. Takes less space that a mobile or my wallet, holds loads. I'm down from several bags a week to maybe one a month. The bag cost £3 from Peacocks (me and my fiancee have about 5 of them now).
And to the others: most family bins are far too big to take shopping bags as liners.
Phil, Lancs says...
3:01pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Andrea wrote:andrea, I would very much like to see you line your wheelie bin in newspaper and leave unwrapped food waste in it for two weeks, especially in summer.
Phil - ask yourself what we did before we were given endless free plastic bags. We lined our bins with newspaper or we washed them out. Horrors! That actually involves effort - where would we get the energy to drive to the gym if we had to line our bins ourselves?
Before we had plastic, bins were emptied once per week and most household waste was burnt on the open coal fire in the living room.
thevoiceoftruth, Brighton says...
3:29pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Ban plastic bottles, make them in glass instead and give people money back for recycling them.
I remember in the 70's we would collect ale bottles etc and take them back to the off license for a few pence each. Can't we do a similar scheme now?
Bring back paper bags to fill with fruit and veg in the supermarkets.
Finally tax companies that use too much packaging. I am sometimes tempted just to unwrap every item when I am at the supermarket and leave all the packaging behind.
Hacked Off, Brighton says...
3:47pm Thu 13 Mar 08
A group of ten year old children could do an equivalent job to our government of jumping to the first obvious (but not necessarily realistic) conclusion to the real problems that affect our country.
Yesterday's budget is a prime example of this across the board.
I agree with what the Co-Op are trying to do but as has been said above, its not a solution.
phil, lancs says...
3:48pm Thu 13 Mar 08
rb wrote:Cleanable/reusable.
golly, i guess i just don\\\'t have or use as much stuff as most people do. go figure. anyway it sounds like some of the things mentioned above do not need to involve plastic bags, and maybe some could be made of some other material, or something cleanable/reusable (muddy boots, eg). i don\\\'t claim to have all the answers but some of it seems to be common sense, it seems to me alot of us have gotten way to used to the \\\'disposable lifestyle\\\' and doing things any differently now, anything that takes any effort or imagination, is too complex to even consider. people managed before plastic came along and guess what, they can manage now.
What do you think a plastic carrier bag is!!!!!!!!
Kelly, Worthing says...
3:50pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Swampy, Weaving Yoghurt in my cave says...
3:57pm Thu 13 Mar 08
phil wrote:People managed before cars, the phone system, piped gas, oil, water and electricity, which must all contribute to environmental damage in a huge way, be it in their production, supply or use, directly or indirectly.
rb wrote: golly, i guess i just don\\\'t have or use as much stuff as most people do. go figure. anyway it sounds like some of the things mentioned above do not need to involve plastic bags, and maybe some could be made of some other material, or something cleanable/reusable (muddy boots, eg). i don\\\'t claim to have all the answers but some of it seems to be common sense, it seems to me alot of us have gotten way to used to the \\\'disposable lifestyle\\\' and doing things any differently now, anything that takes any effort or imagination, is too complex to even consider. people managed before plastic came along and guess what, they can manage now.Cleanable/reusable. What do you think a plastic carrier bag is!!!!!!!!
Perhaps we should get rid of all of this and go back to living in trees and surviving off the land, hunting and gathering.
We could get rid of banks, shops and schools saving massive wasteage of natural resources?
Who's with me?
rb, brighton says...
3:57pm Thu 13 Mar 08
phil wrote:heh, i just assumed they were getting *one* use, given the tone of some of these posts :P you make a point.
rb wrote: golly, i guess i just don\\\\\\\'t have or use as much stuff as most people do. go figure. anyway it sounds like some of the things mentioned above do not need to involve plastic bags, and maybe some could be made of some other material, or something cleanable/reusable (muddy boots, eg). i don\\\\\\\'t claim to have all the answers but some of it seems to be common sense, it seems to me alot of us have gotten way to used to the \\\\\\\'disposable lifestyle\\\\\\\' and doing things any differently now, anything that takes any effort or imagination, is too complex to even consider. people managed before plastic came along and guess what, they can manage now.Cleanable/reusable. What do you think a plastic carrier bag is!!!!!!!!
reducing packaging would really do a lot more than all this bag-banning. government is, as usual, afraid to stand up to big business and instead they're taxing the 'consumer' (i hate that word) into oblivion and putting the onus on people who are just trying to get along instead of attacking the problem at the source!
Charlie the dog, Lancing says...
4:18pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Dontcare, wont care, notonaplaneanyway says...
4:30pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Pat Mustard, Craggy Island says...
4:41pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Dontcare, wont care wrote:Put the dwarf in your reuseable carrier bag and place the hot potato betwixt his buttocks so he doesn't get cold on any long journeys. Now you have two spare pockets for a carton of Um Bongo and a set of allen, keys for example.
I carry a dwarf in my pocket and a hot jacket potato. Where am I supposed to put my bag I need to take to the shop?
On warmer days, let the little beggar get some air around him and just tie him to your leg.
Simple
Sam, Brighton says...
5:30pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Charlie the dog wrote:That's exactly what I was thinking - my two big dogs get through two carrier bags just for the garden and far more than that for walkies. Like all good dog owners, I clear up after them, reusing plastic bags.
Just means that my owner will have to buy more plastic bags to clear up my mess.......
Dont care, wont care, tescos carpark, hove says...
5:59pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Roy Hills, Heathfield says...
9:12pm Thu 13 Mar 08
Brian, Lancing says...
9:15pm Thu 13 Mar 08
bill, says...
11:31pm Thu 13 Mar 08
J S Britton, Winchelsea Beach says...
8:50am Fri 14 Mar 08
censored, Brighton says...
12:10pm Fri 14 Mar 08
Kelly wrote:Only if you read it like that. Which only an idiot would do.
I also carry a fold up reusable bag that I purchased from Wilkinsons for 50p (bargain!!) What I was trying to say is that censored said that the target should be for no bags AT ALL. Surely that would include reusable bags?
mypennyworth, brighton says...
1:04pm Fri 14 Mar 08
Placcy bagman, says...
1:23pm Fri 14 Mar 08
mypennyworth wrote:Thanks for the tip-off. Now I'll have to print the same on the inside......
If I'm going to have to pay for bags, then I'll be turning them inside out first - why should I pay for supermarkets to advertise themselves?
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censored, Brighton says...
1:30pm Thu 13 Mar 08
The only difference is that these will only blow around in hedges for about 10 years before disappearing.