War On Plastic Bags – Part II

Whilst I’m on the subject of environment – and I promise I am not going to make a habit of this and bore you to death on the subject – don’t you get fed up with the quantity of packaging you pick up on your supermarket shop?  I see half-hearted articles on the subject in the press from time to time but nothing ever seems to be done about it.  Whilst the emphasis has been on single use plastic and rightly so, we are still clogging up our bins with masses of unwanted packaging.  Does anyone really know what is recyclable and what isn’t? I mean … really know?  OK you can write to the papers, the packaging companies, the manufacturers, government ministers but in your busy lives, do you have the time?  And we all know that the most we can expect is a smarmy letter informing us of the commitment to environment shown by each of them.  The only organisations who can bring pressure to bear on their suppliers are the supermarkets themselves.

Well …  in some European countries you are allowed to leave all unwanted packaging in the supermarket where you bought it.  I don’t believe such a move is placing an extra cost on businesses in the long term.  And I am sure that again, in the long term, Macclesfield will be delighted to have less unnecessary litter in town and country as at present and less in the recycling bin.  An email to our MP asking for the lead from the government, perhaps?

So far, a welcome response about the reuse of plastic carrier bags from Booths in which they say that they will consider the suggestion (although nothing since), and Sainsbury’s expressed an interest but haven’t been back in touch. Absolutely nothing from the other supermarkets.  Some Knutsford charity shops, of course, have been offering used carrier bags for ages.