Date published: 2006/06/04
The BBC says:
Ikea is to become the UK's first major retailer to regularly charge customers for plastic bags, to try and tackle waste and environmental damage.
The Swedish firm will charge shoppers 5p for every bag with immediate effect, rising to 10p in September.
It believes the move - accompanied by a switch to biodegradable bags and lower prices for reusable bags - will cut total bag use by 20 million next year.
The Environment Agency praised the move as a "great example" to other firms.
Retailers are under growing pressure to curb plastic bag giveaways to reduce litter and encourage energy efficiency.
Most of the estimated 17 billion bags given away each year are only used once and then thrown away.
Well why not? But why stop there? The vast majority of the environmental damage incurred when visiting any store does not arise because of using a plastic bag. In a supermarket, for example, all the other wrapping is far worse. And customers of Ikea in particular can do much more for the environment by not shopping at Ikea in the first place and instead re-using existing furniture. (For example, the people of Cambridge can visit Emmaus in Landbeach and buy perfectly good second-hand furniture from them.) So all in all this just looks like more posturing by the comfortable middle class, the victory of style over substance. Today's pet hatred is the plastic bag, tomorrow's pet hatred will be something else equally symbolic which misses the bigger picture.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").