Hmm, I think they are lying...
by
FroMan
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
My boss, a fellow from South Africa did not understand the reference to "national flower". I get the impression, where ever the author of the story is from considers the "plastic bag" the national flower.
I know it makes it sound interesting, but why can't the press just report the news instead of making commentary on it?
-- Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
On a serious note, here in the US we use those bags for everything. Then we stuff them in a drawer or next to the fridge and reuse them much of the time. You don't see them littering our streets much at all. If South Africans feel it's okay to litter these bags everywhere, then they'll feel fine about littering other things too. The law might help a little, but you can't clean up your town or country without first cleaning up the prevailing attitude about littering.
For an example check out American Samoa. The whole island looks like New Orleans after Mardi Gras. Trash everywhere. You can't drive down a road without the car in front of you tossing crap out the window. It's disgusting. If you ask about it the locals just smirk like you're the foolish one... Hey the storms and ocean eventually wash everything away right? How silly to actually collect it and put it somewhere out of sight! A strong littering law there would certainly generate some cash for the government, but it would be even worse than speed limits here; no one would really believe in it, and no one would really follow it.
First they would have to do a huge public awareness campaign and market cleanliness as COOL and responsible, and market littering as ignorant and old-fashioned. They'd have to teach school children to yell at their parents (like they do here about smoking), and give awards to clean-up crews. Then the law would MEAN something, other than fine revenue for the state.
--
Operator, give me the number for 911!
my local coop...
by
an_mo
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
has posted information with reasons why they are advocating the use of plastic bags instead of the standard paper bags. It claims plastic bags are much more environment friendly, for example it takes 6 truckloads of paper bags to deliver one equivalent truckload of plastic bags. Reusability is also an issue with paper bags.
Ireland Charges for plastic bags
by
Celt
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Best they we ever did, 15c for every carrier bag given out.
The country is a cleaner place now. I think every country should follow us, (UK take note)
-- "WebTV: bringing the Internet into the shallow end of the gene pool since 1995" - Martin Bishop
Re:Ireland Charges for plastic bags
by
Celt
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
In every store/shop/supermarket in the country.
The 15c per bag is passed onto the goverment, the send inspectors round randomly to check this.
-- "WebTV: bringing the Internet into the shallow end of the gene pool since 1995" - Martin Bishop
I have a question
by
ApharmdB
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Why doesn't your local co-op advocate the use of resuable bags? I bought 3 mesh bags about 4 years ago and they have done their job well this whole time. They ball up small, and I just keep them in my car so that I don't forget them. Also, they can hold a lot if you can carry it. I finally broke the handle on one once by putting 5 half-gallons of milk and juice into it. I just sewer the handle back on. I've probably saved hundreds of bags over the last 4 years of grocery shopping by doing so.
Maybe I'm Not Seeing Something Here...
by
Dfiant
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
If I understand the article correctly, in order to reduce the amount of plastic bags floating around their cities, they're going to...require stores by law to have thicker bags? Is there some sort of relationship between bag thickness and the propensity to not recycle it or stick it in the trash? Or maybe they're just so light they float out easily.;-)
Western Alaska Banned Them Too
by
core+plexus
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
"Outside the Western Alaska village of Emmonak, white plastic shopping bags used to start appearing 15 miles from town. They blew out of the dump and rolled across the tundra like tumbleweeds. In Galena, they snagged in the trees and drifted into the Yukon River. Outside Kotlik, on the Yukon Delta, bags were found tangled around salmon and seals.
No more. All three villages banned the bags."
I'll be glad to see them banned everywhere.
by
pair-a-noyd
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I read an article in an old early 50's magazine where they were warning people of the hazards of plastic. They knew then it would be a horrible problem.
Plastic lasts all but forever in the wild, in your house it lasts about 20 seconds. Nobody hardly recycles it. It fills the dumps, it blows everywhere, it's terrible.
I don't remember seeing too many brown paper bags blowing around before these damn things took over. Junk (toys, houseware, car parts, etc.) made of plastic is just plain junk, it breaks and goes to the dump because it can't be repaired.
Paper bags could be recycled and often were, and it was profitable to do so. Paper thrown away into a pile with other trash will break down. Wooden things will rot, metal things will rust or corrode away, glass can be recycled.
MOST things can be recycled however plastic seems to be the one thing that doesn't seem to make it to the recycle center very often. Plastic is about one of the worst things mankind has invented. The truth is that plastic is GREAT for the money counters. It's extremely cheap to make, it's almost FREE compared to using other materials thus they have an extremely high profit margin. Not to mention, repeat customers because people have to keep replacing the broken trash with more trash..
fsck plastic...
The reason behind the new law
by
eugene_roux
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Local testing here in South Africa found that the 17micron bags were very difficult to near impossible to recycle.
Between the thinness of the bags and the ink used on the plastic bags by the shops and supermarkets, attempts of recycling the bags just caused the plastic to be contaminated beyond use.
Additionally the 30micron bags, beyond merely being easier to recycle, will also encourage reuse, since the amounts paid by the consumers out of their own pockets, while certainly not excessive, are quite noticible to the majority of South Africans.
It had been observed that people tend to value what they pay for somewhat more than that which they receive for free...
-- Part Time Philosopher, Oft Times Romantic, Full Time Unix Geek
No one harping on the evils of plastic bags seems aware that so many of these "useless" plastic bags are now made from a corn starch blend that allows them to break down quickly in the rain or sun.
Banning these thin, useless bags seems rather stupid . The "better" thicker bags will NOT break down like the thin corn starch bags, which will just make the problem worse. Seems more logical to require ALL shopping bags be of the corn starch variety. Or, better still, require all shopping sacks to be of cloth or nylon webbing; I myself have two shopping bags that have lasted years. If shoppers have to spend a dollar or two on their shopping sacks, they likely won't be throwing them on the side of the road.
Of course, I still collect paper bags - they're great for cooking (ie dump greasy fried torillas in them and shake to clean away the oil, use as shakers for breading chicken and seafood, etc). And once they're oil impregnated they'll keep the tortillas crispy for a few days. When done, toss'em in the recycling heap and use'em for next year's plant food.
What? No compost heap?
Maybe if more African nations invested some energy in composting they would actually rebuild enough soil to grow some damn food. Banning all plastic bags might be a good step in that direction.
Slashdot Mirror
My boss, a fellow from South Africa did not understand the reference to "national flower". I get the impression, where ever the author of the story is from considers the "plastic bag" the national flower.
I know it makes it sound interesting, but why can't the press just report the news instead of making commentary on it?
Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
now only criminals will use.. ah forget it.
On a serious note, here in the US we use those bags for everything. Then we stuff them in a drawer or next to the fridge and reuse them much of the time. You don't see them littering our streets much at all. If South Africans feel it's okay to litter these bags everywhere, then they'll feel fine about littering other things too. The law might help a little, but you can't clean up your town or country without first cleaning up the prevailing attitude about littering.
For an example check out American Samoa. The whole island looks like New Orleans after Mardi Gras. Trash everywhere. You can't drive down a road without the car in front of you tossing crap out the window. It's disgusting. If you ask about it the locals just smirk like you're the foolish one... Hey the storms and ocean eventually wash everything away right? How silly to actually collect it and put it somewhere out of sight! A strong littering law there would certainly generate some cash for the government, but it would be even worse than speed limits here; no one would really believe in it, and no one would really follow it.
First they would have to do a huge public awareness campaign and market cleanliness as COOL and responsible, and market littering as ignorant and old-fashioned. They'd have to teach school children to yell at their parents (like they do here about smoking), and give awards to clean-up crews. Then the law would MEAN something, other than fine revenue for the state.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
has posted information with reasons why they are advocating the use of plastic bags instead of the standard paper bags. It claims plastic bags are much more environment friendly, for example it takes 6 truckloads of paper bags to deliver one equivalent truckload of plastic bags. Reusability is also an issue with paper bags.
Best they we ever did, 15c for every carrier bag given out.
The country is a cleaner place now.
I think every country should follow us, (UK take note)
"WebTV: bringing the Internet into the shallow end of the gene pool since 1995" - Martin Bishop
Why doesn't your local co-op advocate the use of resuable bags? I bought 3 mesh bags about 4 years ago and they have done their job well this whole time. They ball up small, and I just keep them in my car so that I don't forget them. Also, they can hold a lot if you can carry it. I finally broke the handle on one once by putting 5 half-gallons of milk and juice into it. I just sewer the handle back on. I've probably saved hundreds of bags over the last 4 years of grocery shopping by doing so.
If I understand the article correctly, in order to reduce the amount of plastic bags floating around their cities, they're going to...require stores by law to have thicker bags? Is there some sort of relationship between bag thickness and the propensity to not recycle it or stick it in the trash? Or maybe they're just so light they float out easily. ;-)
"Outside the Western Alaska village of Emmonak, white plastic shopping bags used to start appearing 15 miles from town. They blew out of the dump and rolled across the tundra like tumbleweeds. In Galena, they snagged in the trees and drifted into the Yukon River. Outside Kotlik, on the Yukon Delta, bags were found tangled around salmon and seals. No more. All three villages banned the bags."
Typing monkeys produce 5 pages of gibberish
I read an article in an old early 50's magazine where they were warning people of the hazards of plastic. They knew then it would be a horrible problem.
Plastic lasts all but forever in the wild, in your house it lasts about 20 seconds.
Nobody hardly recycles it. It fills the dumps, it blows everywhere, it's terrible.
I don't remember seeing too many brown paper bags blowing around before these damn things took over. Junk (toys, houseware, car parts, etc.) made of plastic is just plain junk, it breaks and goes to the dump because it can't be repaired.
Paper bags could be recycled and often were, and it was profitable to do so. Paper thrown away into a pile with other trash will break down. Wooden things will rot, metal things will rust or corrode away, glass can be recycled.
MOST things can be recycled however plastic seems to be the one thing that doesn't seem to make it to the recycle center very often.
Plastic is about one of the worst things mankind has invented. The truth is that plastic is GREAT for the money counters. It's extremely cheap to make, it's almost FREE compared to using other materials thus they have an extremely high profit margin. Not to mention, repeat customers because people have to keep replacing the broken trash with more trash..
fsck plastic...
Between the thinness of the bags and the ink used on the plastic bags by the shops and supermarkets, attempts of recycling the bags just caused the plastic to be contaminated beyond use.
Additionally the 30micron bags, beyond merely being easier to recycle, will also encourage reuse, since the amounts paid by the consumers out of their own pockets, while certainly not excessive, are quite noticible to the majority of South Africans.
It had been observed that people tend to value what they pay for somewhat more than that which they receive for free...
Part Time Philosopher, Oft Times Romantic, Full Time Unix Geek
Banning these thin, useless bags seems rather stupid . The "better" thicker bags will NOT break down like the thin corn starch bags, which will just make the problem worse. Seems more logical to require ALL shopping bags be of the corn starch variety. Or, better still, require all shopping sacks to be of cloth or nylon webbing; I myself have two shopping bags that have lasted years. If shoppers have to spend a dollar or two on their shopping sacks, they likely won't be throwing them on the side of the road.
Of course, I still collect paper bags - they're great for cooking (ie dump greasy fried torillas in them and shake to clean away the oil, use as shakers for breading chicken and seafood, etc). And once they're oil impregnated they'll keep the tortillas crispy for a few days. When done, toss'em in the recycling heap and use'em for next year's plant food.
What? No compost heap?
Maybe if more African nations invested some energy in composting they would actually rebuild enough soil to grow some damn food. Banning all plastic bags might be a good step in that direction.