Sunday 6 March 2016

Bio Bags


If you're from Kent, are you Kentonese?

Overheard in Lidl:

Hay: "Look - lemon and raspberry semifreddo."

Chairman: "Wasn't he one of the characters in The Godfather?"

Hay: "No, you're thinking of Lord of the Rings."

Talking of supermarkets, I've often wondered why they don't use biodegradable carrier bags to overcome the 5p government levy, especially the ones made from potato starch (bags, not politicians). Incredibly it turns out that biodegradable bags aren't exempt from the levy. The government did a report on biodegradables in December, the conclusion being they they don't yet have any suitable standards for biodegradability of carrier bags, which I find hard to believe. Given the government is making money on this we shouldn't expect any concrete results this side of the 2nd coming.

Paper bags, apparently, are exempt, yet paper is recyclable and currently sustainable. Still we see no rush by supermarkets to replace plastic bags with paper ones. I remember most supermarkets of my youth - Kwik Save, Fine Fare, Lennon's, Safeway - using paper carrier bags in the 60s, well before the plastic carrier bag was ever thought of. That said, I also remember my mother having fits when the bottom of a paper bag burst open on being slightly wet from some squashed item of fruit at the bottom of the bag.


2 comments:

Roger said...

Are bio_degradable bags actually biodegradable? I remember reading something a couple of weeks ago that reported that the sea around the US was 'a plastic soup' and that half of the fish population contained microscopic particles of plastic. Americans are eating plastic along with their fish.

I haven't posted for a while so congratulations on your new job and your forthcoming wedding. Well done sir!

Chairman Bill said...

The potato starch ones biodegrade within 12 weeks, allegedly. They're not plastic, but starch polymer.

Thanks for the wishes.