Saturday 17 May 2008

PLASTIC BAG GUILT

At last someone is singing from my hymn sheet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7405861.stm

The man has obviously been reading my blog. It’s not plastic bags that are the main culprit; it’s the excessive and unnecessary plastic wrapping that surrounds all our manufactured goods. THAT is where it needs to be addressed, not here in this rural two-person household.

Reporting on the Professors finding, a BBC reporter stood in front of a huge mound of plastic waste proclaiming that “only 2% of this plastic waste, destined for a landfill site, is made up of plastic bags”. Excuse me? Did I hear that right? Was he saying that all the plastic bottles and boxes that the council demand I carefully rinse out for re-cycling are not being re-cycled at all but are in actual fact going to a landfill site? Those same landfill sites that can’t cope with the amount of non-biodegradable waste we are producing? What’s that all about? Do you mean to tell me that they are not even being shipped to China? Disgraceful.

In the same report Environment minister Joan Ruddock admitted single use bags were only a small part of the waste stream. But she added: "We know that the public is on our side. They want action. It's very symbolic of our throw-away society and so we do need to do something quite dramatically to curb their use." Here we go again. Implying that it’s our fault because we are a “throw-away society”. Madam, if only we could throw you away life would improve exponentially.

But, assuming that this poxy stupid government even really does believe that plastic bags are a menace why has this council taken away our eco friendly re-cycling boxes and replaced them with PLASTIC BAGS.

Answer that, you can’t can you?

13 comments:

Grit said...

oh dear, you are right. i wish you were wrong and your outrage unjustified. bum. i will now have to consider another round of direct action.

menopausaloldbag (MOB) said...

Absolutely bloody briliant post dear girl. You have such a great way of getting that anger over. You should be out running for office - you'd be a thousand times more effective than the clowns we have running our local councils.

We have a woman at the local Waitrose who is a rather posh checkout girl. If we pop in there on the offchance we need a few things but have forgotten to take our reusable bags we get a fecking lecture! We sneak off to another till even if she has no queue!

menopausaloldbag (MOB) said...

I just read through the rest of your posts - I've been away and just catching up with you. You never fail to make me laugh, get angry on your behalf or cry on your's or OG's behalf. Such a gift of the gab you have and with such wonderful colourful language too.

I suppose your dear OG is about to or is in the throes of chemo? I wish you both well dear lady and I'll be back to see how you are fairing.

Laura Jane Williams said...

Local councils often do not quite have their heafds screwed on, don't you think? Pathetic. Plastic bags? What a joke!

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

When you organise another round of direct action grit - COUNT ME IN.

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Funny you should say that MOB, there are some in the office that say I should be PM.

OG hasn't started chemo yet. It's a bit or a Catch 22 situation. The chemo will not be of any benefit if we go over 3 months from the operation but he has to gain his strength back before they start. I think they will probably start next week.

Maggie May said...

I jolly well hope I am not recycling for nothing! PLEASE don't tell me I am!
Plastic is a curse!

Carrie Wilson Link said...

I'm totally with you on this issue! TOTALLY!

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Huh, I remember a trip up the Rogue River to Paradise and how amazed I was at how environmentally sensitive they are on that river. Do you mean to tell me Carrie that apart from these small pockets of heaven you have the same recylcing problems we have?

Anonymous said...

I am so sick of call centers and their inability to do anything only piss me off in bright colours
You are ok if you stick to what they want to answer but go outside the tram lines and booooom.

aims said...

Why do they insist then on everything being sealed with plastic - then wrapped in plastic - then put in plastic so we can carry it home.

What happened to paper? What happened to cloth?

Grrrrrrrrrrr.......

Penny Pincher said...

It's a conspiracy - if the govt can keep us busy worrying about the little things - e.g sorting out our rubbish, global warming, whether we smoke, over eat or are heavy drinkers - then we wont have time to look at the bigger issues e.g. how they mis-manage the economy, waste our money on 2 homes etc etc

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Dear Valleys Mam, aims and LadyThinker, yes, yes yes with knobs on. It seems that most of the electorate think the same, but the bloody government aka Gordon bloody Brown is just not listening.