When Garbage can be pure rubbish?

[oneway4]

Recently we have seen the street garbage collections being changed from 1 weekly to 2 weekly collections, plus a chip in the base of wheely bins to show how much weight is being disposed of.
Recycling, has become the new green word, we are told that certain goods like plastic, metal,cardboard and paper, which are the preferred recyclable products, along with unused or discarded clothing and footware.
Plastic bags have been targeted as the rotten egg you should not use, Diesel fuel for greener carbonless envoiroment, is another item being sold at exorbitant prices?

Have you also noticed where all this recycling and re jigging of waste disposal and collections are in fact followed very quickly with a rise in the costs of disposal extra to the rates we pay to local authority.

So my long winded question is this, are we being set up for another round of stealth charges, similar to the ones favoured by our illustrious Prime Minister Gordon Brown was famous for in his former office of Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[Brian Turner]

Oh, yes - Gordon Brown left the kitty empty when he should have been saving for a rainy day. Now the rainy days are arriving in the form of potential recession, and there's no money to use to help us. So stealth taxes a plenty to help bring extra money in - removal of lower rate of income tax, backdated car tax, rubbish tax - where they can, they will. Tax and spend - it's old Labour again!

[jazzermonty]

It may well be a way to tax us some more, but since my local authority started this practice I've noticed that the recycling bin is generally fuller than the general waste bin, which just goes to show how much were paying for packaging ect that we don't really want.

[oneway4]

Thats also another of my pet hate subjects, packaging! The times I have purchased a small item only to have a massive packaging blister blown plastic sleeve, which is usually impenetrable, also i understand that quite a large amount of these plastic packing items take hundreds of years to breakdown?The documentary about the island of Plastic carrier bags which is blighting a large area of one of the oceans, really brought it home to me not to have a plastic carrier bag If I can help it?

[rascolians]

I agree with the comment over not using a carrier bag if not really necessary. However I object to the current practice adopted by many stores of charging for bags when needed.
I will quite happily pay a reasonable fee for a bag that is plain ( ie it does not have any logos on it or other marks that indicate which shop the bag has come from)
I will not pay for a bag that has M&S, Tesco, or otherwise splattered across it- why should I pay to advertise a high street business?

[oneway4]

Originally Posted by rascolians

I
I will not pay for a bag that has M&S, Tesco, or otherwise splattered across it- why should I pay to advertise a high street business?

Yes that can be counted as another pet hate of mine, recently I had a great chance to sound off at my local Sainsbury store, they had set up at store entrance, an abundance of not just well stacked shelves but well rather pretty stacked girls. All vying with each other to place a wonderful Sainsbury bag for life into your hands as a gift, thank you I politely replied?

The young lady then proudly told me that it was a pleasure, and I could get more of these Long Life bags inside they charged just 15p per bag?

Holding out my hand towards the young lady she looked at me perplexed, then asked why I held my hand out?

I simply wanted 15p from you for advertising your bag, I retorted!

She did not see the funny side of it neither did she understand the significance of what I was saying to her?

But I noticed that other customers were refusing the bags, saying why should they pay to show Sainsbury on the bags? So I ws not the only misery out shopping????

[rascolians]

The sad thing is that these supermarkets and other businesses are now using the whole environmental subject to excuse themselves from ceratin aspects of corporate and social responsibility. Their advertising declares that they have reduced the number of plastic bags that they use, however the real truth is that they have just seen enviromental responsibility as an opportunity to pass business costs onto their already fleeced consumers.
I haven't had the opportunity to try this yet, but I wonder how mant supermarkets have plain plastic bags available for customers like me and the previous guy who refuse to pay for their advertising?