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Phasing out Plastic Bags


Teamedup
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Hi

It is starting here. Leclerc St Aunes do not supply plastic bags.

I was in UK last week and all the supermarkets I visited still have a free plastic bag policy.

I'm afraid this demonstrates how far behind France & UK are with ecology.

Ten years ago, I arrived in Sweden and was surprised that no supermarkets had free plastic bags. They were SEK1, 10p,  FF1, Euro 0.60 each for the normal flimsy item, and 5X more for the long life variety.

Ever since, I always go shopping with empty plastic bags in my pocket !

But every cloud has a silver lining. All supermarkets had a machine where you fed in your aluminium cans and got credits. I discovered that my Belgian bought beer cans were worth more empty in Sweden than full (in Belgium) due to the low price of beer in Belgium ! Then they changed the machines and used a bar code reader, which meant that I had the embarrasment of rejected cans being noisily spat out onto the floor.

Just worth noting that for the last 10 years at least, you couldn't buy beer in aluminium cans in Denmark. You bought a crate (with a returnable deposit) and they had an automatic conveyor belt that read the bar coding and gave a credit voucher. And in 1991 I used to buy crates of beer on the same basis in Belgium.

Peter

 

 

 

 

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Auchan (in Perigueux at least) now have several 'Eco' caisses with no bags. It started out as just the one but it must be a third of all checkouts now. On the rare occasion I go to Leclerc I take in my panier that is always in the car as they don't do bags at all. I used to enjoy Waitrose's scan as you go. I thought of it yesterday as I loaded up onto the conveyor belt at the Eco caisse at Auchan only to put it all back in the trolley seconds later - what a waste of time and effort especially as I've got a really painful back.
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When I arrived in France the bags were free in most places. And when I used to go back to the UK for quite a few years they weren't free. And I would be caught out having no shopping bags with me, in fact it would get up my nose to be honest. 

These days most places give out free bags in the UK, but the UK was several years behind France in the free bags policy. I daresay the UK will catch up with the no free bags thing soon enough.

Like Tourangelle, I do use them at home and have to buy them now.

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Must be different in other parts of France then, Le Clerc stopped giving away bags altogether at least three years ago down here, they sell bags for life for 0 .50€  and Hyper/Super U stopped last year, although they do keep a few around for clothes and tourists
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Our local Super U stopped the free plastic bags about 18months ago now along with the LeClerc and Géant and everyone uses their large bags that cost 60cts each although only Super U do the strongest ones. However it seems that city/town centre stores still give away sacs as my daughter gets them in St.Brieuc centre. I am glad really because there is nothing worse than seeing these bags full of picnic rubbish or dirty nappies just thrown from cars onto the side of the roads or washed up on the beach. I even sent a few of the "new" bags back to the family for them to use in the UK as they are so strong and last for ages. Occasionally the shops give them away free with purchases over 50€ as a promo. Walking past the now landscaped local décharge recently that was disused about four years back,you can still see these sacs poking out of the dirt and I don't suppose they will ever dissolve away.
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How topical....

on todays TF1 website newspage

"Les emballages non biodégradables hors-la-loi dès 2010"

Créé le 11 octobre 2005

Mis à jour le 11 octobre 2005 à 20h37

Les députés, par un vote unanime, ont décidé mardi de bannir tous les emballages en plastique non biodégradables de France. La mesure deviendra effective à compter du 1er janvier 2010.

L'Assemblée nationale a décidé mardi, à l'unanimité, d'interdire la commercialisation ou la distribution de sacs ou emballages en plastique non biodégradables sur le territoire français à compter du 1er janvier 2010.

Les députés, qui examinaient pour la cinquième journée le projet de loi d'orientation agricole, ont adopté un amendement prévoyant ce dispositif. Le ministre de l'Agriculture Dominique Bussereau s'en est remis "à la sagesse" de l'Assemblée pour l'adoption de cet amendement, qui stipule qu'"à partir du 1er janvier 2010, la commercialisation et la distribution de sacs ou emballages en plastique non biodégradables sont interdites sur le territoire français".

"Un décret fixe les modalités techniques de cette mesure ainsi que les sanctions et les conditions de vérification de la biodégrabilité des emballages susceptibles d'être commercialisés ou distribués", précise l'amendement, présenté par les députés UMP Francis Delattre et Marc Le Fur.
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It's strange how it varies so much from shop to shop and region to region. Two years ago the carrefour in paimpol already didn't have plastic bags. We kept being caught out on this because none of our supermarkets down here in provence was doing it (or even mentioning it) Then about a year later the Auchan in martigues started the eco-caisse system. When we went to the swiss/german border on holiday, I thought that they were certain to be in the forefront of the no-plastic bags idea, but no, they still gave them away like confetti.

What annoys me is that there is nothing announcing it. It's not until you get to the checkout that you realise you've got to either buy (yet more) bags for life, or try and carry all your shopping in your arms. Just a notice in the carpark or at the entrance would make you think to go back and check if you haven't got a few bags in the car. This is why I appreciated the eco-caisse system, you could choose whether or not you used it (no-one around here did, so it was always the quickest checkout in the shop)

I like the green géant/casino bags for life. They fold down well and have stable square bottoms that make packing easy.

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Le Clerc up here stopped supplying the bags about five years ago and then they brought them back....I think that has stopped now though.  Again.

I too can never remember who supplies bags and there is nothing more annoying.  I can see me going back to olden times with a nice shopping basket stuffed full of string bags.

Or maybe a shopping trolley...  Tartan

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It is over 2 years now since I worked for ASDA , but I can remember a meeting we(checkout)had about giving away free carrier bags too freely, the cost to the store was incredible, and unfortunatly a figure will not spring to mind but it was thousands of pounds  per week. We were offered an incentive to `push` the eco bags at 10 p each, as we were informed that eventually the `free` bags would be phased out.

Mrs O

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What about the rolls of plastic bags used for fruit and veg? Will they substitute paper bags? I doubt it. I only use them when I have to eg for items like carrots, apples etc where you need more than one. Not for bananas, single capiscums etc. Then I re-use them instead of clingfilm. Well trained by one of our daughters who is fanatically anti-plastic. Pat.
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"Is it frowned upon to go into, say, Atac with a Carrefour bag for life? "

Not that I've seen. We use the heavyweight Champion bags and Sainsbury's bottle bags at Leclerc et al, and there's no comment. Getting the bags in the first place is a palaver involving going to the acceuil and having them neutered in some way.
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There's been a plastic bag tax in Ireland for a few years now: 15 cents per bag - the money raised goes to the taxman for re-investment in the environment. Use of plastic bags has dropped by 90%, which is obviously great for the environment.

It doesn't take long for people to get used to the idea of bringing a bag along with you.  And after a week of shopkeepers saying "do you want a bag with that" you realise that you really do waste a lot of plastic bags and that the bags for life are a great idea.  Though cloth bags seem to be the shoppers' choice in Ireland... 

Around us in France, Intermarché & Casino have now a no bags policy.

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Bio-degradable plastic bags should have been in use for many years now (at least in the UK). The technology was available over 20 years ago (I remember it being announced and all the mainstream UK supermarkets announcing they were using bio-degradable bags). However, I have no idea if they have quietly switched back to non-degradable ones (for cost reasons or some other reason ?)

Ian
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Funny you should say that Deimos. We brought some stuff back from the UK a couple or so years ago and as we have a tendancy to do had brought too much back really. Some of it I left in it's plastic bag and left it on a shelf in the cave.

Went to get something out, don't know how long later and the bag disintegrated into confetti. It is the only time this has happened with any plastic bag we have ever had, but I was impressed that it was so degradeable.

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In this neck of the woods,Leclerc stopped handing out free plastic bags years ago although Carrefour still does.One Super U 15 miles away doesn't do them but another a couple of miles nearer still does. I used to like all the paper bags we got when shopping in USA and those fabric ones that M and S do are really tough and look good too

 

 

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I still shop using a bag-for-life type bag I purchased in 1990 from the now defunct (I think, anyway) Dutch chain Albert Hein. It cost me 20p or thereabouts. Now, in LeClerc when I see people looking at us together I imagine them saying to themselves "Gosh! Have you seen that dashing, handsome and ecologically sound guy with his thousand-fold used bag??" But they are probably thinking "Have you seen the scruffy git with the Godawful tatty old sack?"

I did ask once why the idea of exchangeable beer crates had not spread further afield. I was told it was because:

1) Smaller volumes of product would be transported for a given weight of truck, increasing costs;

2) Capital outlay required to procure a large number of bottles, crates, washing facilities;

3) The need to employ additional smelly human work units to the work.

Back to the tomato sauce production line.
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I always admire the organisation re recycling bottles in Holland. In Denmark they  charge a lot per glass bottle as a consigne. We used to be able to consigne things in France but it stopped several years ago, pity.

LOL even when we were in the NE USA most states had pretty good recycling cans and bottle policies.

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Is it frowned upon to go into, say, Atac with a Carrefour bag for life?  I have a picture in my mind of racks of bags for life from various supermarkets in the boot and a customer choosing the "correct" one for that day's shopping!

  I can agree with that question! We use a variety of supermarkets in UK and so have a varied collection of 'bags for life' and cold bags and although we don't bother which ones we use,  I often wonder when we are at the checkout at, say, ADSA, if there is the unvoiced question as to whether we are using some other supermarket's bags to pretend to  the neighbours that we have  shopped somewhere else

  I understand that all UK supermarkets would like to do away with the free bags but fear the slight turndown in sales if the other stores didn't follow suit. I think it was Sainsburys who put the idea forward, I can remember a spokeman saying that they weren't in business to provide the nation with pedal-bin liners. They started giving a penny for each bag self-provided by the shopper but that seems to have stopped now.  

 

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We also have the green bags that have a strong base and fold down too which you buy for approx 50p and they are strong and last for a long time. You can use them in any shop regardless of the logo on the side. Unfortunately although many people do use them, supermarkets still provide plastic bags and I am not sure of the figures, but would guess because they still provide plastic bags that there is the tendency to leave the green bags in the car or just plain forget them unless you are truly committed. If the plastic bags where not available, or were charged for, the green bags would be used more, and hopefully this will be the next step. People are becoming more and more environmentally aware with all local councils now providing a weekly service with a bin for the pick up of paper and cardboard and a separate one for glass bottles and plastic for recycling in addition to garbage collection, not just the councils with "greenie" residents.

Why some of us are so behind some of the Countries mentioned in this thread I don't know, perhaps in my case, Australia, we still has lots of space to dig big holes and tip it in, like the suggestion by a previous PM that we dig big holes and dump the rest of the world's nuclear waste in as a big money earner, oh yeh, get that passed by the voters, I don't think so.

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