Results tagged “carrier bags” from Birmingham Mail - Is It Just Me

I see the National Trust has now jumped on the 'let's make an eco-killing band waggon' and started charging for its carrier bags.

Apparently this is to reduce the amount of plastic and is in response to customer feedback - amazing how often customer response/feedback/requests and so on come into play whenever an organisation changes something, particularly if it is going to cost more. Strangely, as a member, I am no stranger to NT properties and have never been asked my opinion about carrier bags nor do I know anyone who has been asked.

I just wonder by what authority the NT and other shops charging 5p a back feel they have the right to effectively impose an environment tax, which is what it is. I don't mind if they say we can't afford free bags any more so we are charging for them, or even announce they have decided to charge to make more profit, I can take honesty, but to claim it is for the environment and they are really doing it for us is cynical in the extreme. The Trust's 5p is straight in their coffers, a little eco-windfall, while even the shop chains offering to give the money to charity will no doubt take out the cost of bags and manage to make a few grand interest before their donations make it to the inevitable cheque presentations.

No chain has yet come up with anything to really help that involves them actually doing anything, such as announcing it will only use biodegradable carrier bags in future or, even better, will in future only use paper sacks and paper bags which can all be recycled.

Dear Lord protect us from holier-than-thou fanatics with a cause. With the anti-smoking war all but won we now see them manning the anti-drink barricades as a diversion to that mother-of-all crusades - saving the planet.

It is the po-faced arrogance and mixing facts with quasi-science and dubious statistics that does my head in, along with this idea that somehow we all have to suffer and be punished for sins against the planet - such as the latest wheeze of charging for carrier bags in shops. One national newspaper hailed this as a victory in ITS campaign, the same newspaper, by the way, that packs ITS Saturday edition in enough plastic bags to make a fairly large contribution to a modest landfill site all on its own.

The Green cause is seeing food prices rise because farmland is being used to grow crops for bio-fuels and, best of all, we are seeing tropical and rain forests - which are remarkably good and efficient in filtering the atmosphere - being slashed and burned to grow even more crops for bio-fuels which add to pollution. That is in addition to the destruction of forests just for old fashioned greed.

The next idea is to have higher VAT on products deemed as not being green or using unnecessary energy - deemed by the disciples of doom and Government tax collectors that is. Governments love green because it offers a whole new raft of taxes - all in the name of mother Earth.

We have been despoiling and polluting the earth for years so it is about time we did something but let's stop using it as an excuse for new taxes and price hikes on the long suffering consumers.