Plastic Bags

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8123521.stm

Looks like I will have to start buying bin liners again!

If people were more responsible in their re-use of plastic bags (i.e. not littering the countryside with them), the whole plastic bag issue wouldn't be so much of a problem.

Last year, our wheelie bin collection became fortnightly. The bin was last collected on Wednesday. It already stinks. We bin very little food waste, but leftover cat food, fish skins, bones, etc. have to go in the bin. Unless we switch the cats to dried cat food (they refuse to eat without some wet food) and start living on ready meals (i.e. no waste) this isn't going to change. Wrexham County Borough Council's suggestion to stop waste smelling in the bin? Put all your rubbish in a sealed up plastic bag first...

So, if there are to be no one-use carrier bags, I will have to buy bin bags, which have far more plastic in them - even the small ones are larger and thicker than a Sainsbury's free carrier bag.

I don't like a lot of the "eco friendly" bags sold by supermarkets. The hessian ones can't be cleaned or sterilised and some of the plastic "bags for life" are quite flimsy (handles that tear off) while others use many, many times the amount of plastic used in an ordinary supermarket carrier. The calico bags that we use, bought years ago, can be washed on a hot programme. But is it really more eco-friendly to have to hot wash your carrier bags every month? They start to smell if you don't. Or do you just keep using that hessian bag until you finally do get salmonella poisoning via that chicken you carried home in it last week?

I might get a roll of bin bags next time I shop and insist on opening them at the checkout so I can pack my groceries in them!