No more shopping bags - less waste or just PR |
| Tuesday, 10 July 2007 | |
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CO: Reusable bags are not new but are making news as Loblaws makes a commitment to the environment and CSR. Eliminating plastic bags is a good first step, but will it lead to actual change?
Voluntary ApproachGlobeandmail.com - See Loblaws video A Simple Loblaw equationBy Derek DeCloet Comment for the Globe and Mail July 10, 2007 at 5:57 AM EDT He's handsome. He looks so smart. And when Galen G. Weston's smiling, bespectacled face shows up on your television screen, it's hard not to root for him. ... So, back to the TV spot. We're ready to run out to our nearest Loblaw [L-T] store and support the cause, so what does Junior have to sell us today? A new President's Choice chorizo? Memories of Bombay curry-in-a-box? Um, no. Try a recyclable grocery bag. "This is huge," intones the spokesman/boss. "We're going to reduce the number of plastic bags going into Canada's landfills by a billion." Then, a woman's voice delivers the unintentionally funny tagline: "Worth switching supermarkets for." Sorry, it's not huge and it's not worth going to Loblaw for. A reusable shopping bag? People already have five of them in the back of the minivan. Every store sells them now. Better food products and employees with a clue - now that might make it worth switching. But Loblaw lost its edge in the former and suffers from a dearth of the latter. Mandatory ApproachThe need for BIG changes: Message in the Waves - a movie about environmental destruction, connections, and plastic bags Some inspiring examples: BBC site: Town Dumps Plastic Bags Rebecca Hosking was moved to tears as she filmed marine life off Hawaii for the BBC2 programme, Natural World (you can watch some of the film using the link on this page). "What really brought it home for me was one day filming a turtle," she said. "It had a plastic bag in its mouth and was slowly dying, there was nothing we could do. "We were also filming albatross who were picking up plastic and feeding it to their chicks and we saw so many suffer a slow and painful death. ----- Town's sites:
Other Cities and towns: San Francisco and Leaf Ridge, Manitoba have banned plastic bags in stores.
From CBC: It's official: Manitoba town gives plastic bags the boot ... Mayor Ed Cherrier said he doesn't expect any trouble enforcing the new bylaw in the town of about 550 people. "Everybody's on board," he told CBC News. "Our Co-op store and Fields, they're really supporting our initiative. And in fact, our Co-op store has offered a challenge to all of Federated to go bag-free across Canada." It's estimated that a traditional plastic bag takes 1,000 years to dissolve. The new bylaw prevents retailers from selling or distributing the single-use bags. Ignoring the ban could result in a $1,000-a-day fine. In anticipation, officials have been handing out cloth shopping bags to residents. Plastic is better than paper according to plastic manufacturersCBC: Plastic better than paper, manufacturer says ... PCL Packaging in Saint John makes close to a billion plastic bags each year. Company spokeswoman Terry Ricketts said banning bags is an extreme way to deal with a litter problem and that plastic bags are better for the environment than many alternatives. "In terms of the advantages that plastic may have over paper, something to consider is the energy required to put into the bag to make it," Ricketts said. "In the case of paper, because of its bulk in size and volume and the processes required to make it in the first place, to recycle it, to get it to market, it uses far more energy than a plastic bag does." Ricketts said she would support a tariff on plastic bags, similar to that on plastic bottles. She said encouraging people to recycle or reuse bags instead of throwing them away would deal with litter issues. Thoughts and actions?
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