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Old 19th-May-2008, 10:46 AM
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Claire Claire is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by seven View Post
If the govt were serious about the environment they would tackle the real problems supermarkets pose, and that is excess packaging on almost everything we buy. Carrier bags account for about 0.2% of waste and this is just political posturing and a vote grabbing exercise. Either fix it or leave well alone Mr Brown. Do not tinker at the edges of social problems and expect us to believe that what you`re doing is a sincere attempt to impove the quality of life.
I partly agree and partly disagree - I don't think carrier bags are the biggest deal in environmental terms but I don't think excess packaging is either. I've heard that people driving to the shops absolutely swamps all the rest of the food miles impacts and I suspect that that would swamp the issue of packaging and carrier bags in turn - then there's the amount of stock that is thrown away, and home refrigeration and freezers... And this is just the stuff related to food shopping...

The good thing about the carrier bags thing though is that it starts to raise awareness. Don't know if that's why Mr Brown is encouraging it but it's got to be a good thing as long as people don't think that's all they have to do.
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