Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes:
I just don’t get the whole plastic bag thing. I don’t know about you but my humble little plastic shopping bag is bloody useful. A recent survey show that I, like 93% of people responsibly reuse them.
My plastic bag sock in my pantry that Sue bought me. Just about everybody I know has one. It’s great you can stuff about 20 of the little shoppies in there and they just poke out the bottom, ready to use.)
But the other day my newsagent Rick (the Plastic Bag Warrior) bailed me up. “No more” he told me, “we have to do something about plastic bags, there destroying the environment.”
But don’t worry for just 70cents Rick could solve the problem - “A re useable bag” (but hang on I reuse all my shoppies).
Rick would have have none of it. He shamed me into buying his 70 cents environmentally friendly, save the planet bag.
Rick was very pleased, he was doing his bit to save the planet.
(I’ve got to say I miss my old bag sock. Oh but maybe I’ll get use to the colour)
I’ve felt OK about being environmentally responsible, (I know Rick was happy with me) although imagine my confusion when I found out my new save the planet bags are made of “plastic”. Hmm. Not until I started to run out of my little shoppies did I realize how many of them I depend on.
Running out of Shoppies and concerned about what to do now with my kitchen food scraps I went back to my “Plastic bag Warrior” and part time News Agent Rick for the solution to my problem. After all he’d shamed me into this.
“No worries Mate” he told me, “just buy a composter. Throw all the scraps in there and then straight into the vegy garden, its great.”
After pricing a composter at about $500, I’m starting to become a little wary of Rick’s logic. I use to get my plastic bags for free, now I have to pay 70 cents for a thicker plastic bag, spend $5oo on a compostor and build a vegy garden.
(Ah the good old days when life was simpler and I just pulled a “free” shoppie out of the sock and put it in my kitchen bin. When it’s full of scraps pull it straight out, tie the tops and straight into the wheelie bin.)
I seem to be collecting a heap of these horrid red bags. I don’t know about you, but I’m lucky to remember to take my mobile phone and glasses when I got out the door, now I have to remember the red bags in case I stop off at a shop.
Not wanting to have to spend 70cents on a re usable save the planet shopping bag (Rick assures me I’m getting a bargain, those bloody big supermarkets are charging $1) and also having to buy plastic bin liners (to replace shoppies I use to get for free), I tried the solution below.
This is what my office waste bin use to look like. So simple, paper in plastic shoppie liner, when it’s full, tie it up and then straight into the yellow topped recycle bin.
Just look at it now.
This is not working.
So back down to Ricks for more advise. “No worries mate”, say Rick, ” just slip down to the supermarket and buy some bin liners” (but hang on a minute Rick, there plastic, how is that any different, except I’m now paying for all my plastic bags.)
Rick smiles at me all knowingly, as only someone who is on a crusade to save the planet can.
He assures me, “Yes mate, I know, but we’ve got to do something about all these plastic bags, their destroying the environment you know.”
Dumbfounded and confused I just left Rick to his crusade of saving the planet from plastic bags. He knows and I now know I’m just too “thick’ to work it out.
For some strange reason this whole ban “free” plastic shopping bags crusade has me thinking of that old fable “The Emperors New Cloths”.
Have your say! To leave your thoughts / opinion’s or comment click on the blue comments link below.
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Tags: Environment
The plastic bag crusade is so hypocritical. Go out west to the communities and see what is lying around out there - plastic wine cask bladders, and plastic disposable nappies EVERYWHERE.
What about the plastic used to package small amounts of fresh vegies, plastic bags we put our selection of fresh fruit and vegies into, plastic bags and wrap for sale by the kilometre, plastic bags used by all shops for your purchase?
The worst thing of all is disposable nappies - they do not break down over a long period of time, they certainly are not cheaper than buying toweling nappies which are expensive to outlay but will last you through two babies, and are MUCH cheaper in the long run.
It is all just a part of the propaganda used by the federal and state governments, and the manipulation of the gullible by the green groups.
G’day Judy,
You are so right. I see in the press that Federal Environment Minister Peter Garret quoting that there are 4 Billion plastic shopping bags floating around Australia, harming the environment.
When you do the math, that’s 200 little shoppies for every man women and child. I live at Gympie, population 25,000. According to Peter Garrets numbers our share should be about 5 million of these discarded little “monsters” flying / lying and floating around here.
I looked out my front door and could not see any. I thought “gee they must be bad in other parts of the town.” So I went for a drive expecting to come across a part of Gympie that would be just festooned with the little blighter’s. No luck
So I drove down to Tin Can Bay & Rainbow beach to have a look. Surely our 5 million shoppies must have all blown or floated down there. Again no luck. I just can’t work out where they are hiding.
Then it dawned on me. We have 42 people running for 8 council positions in the upcoming local elections, plus 8 for mayor. Thats 50 candidates who I’d reckon have at least 100 signs each around the place. You know the big plastic sign with their smiling face on it. Thats 5,000 signs, in our shire, now thats what happened - all the plastic shoppie have been collected and recycled into election signs.
Thats clever turning the 5,000,000 dangerous little shoppies into 5,000 bloody awful visually polluting plastic election signs.
I have to say im dissapointed with the sudden influx of plastic/ synthetic anti-gall- easy clean- maintenence free equestrian gear that is shoved at anyone with a horse or three.
I am a traditionalist and ride in a leather stock saddle, with a leather bridle, stainless steel bit and cotton girth. I really dont have a problem with rubbing grease into my saddle in fact I confess to liking the smell!
I like the look of my horse with his brown leather bridle (not hot pink/ lime green or sky blue). I wash my cotton girth, it takes about 30mins to dry and its anti gall enough for me. I imagine the horsemen and women of yester-year would lay the leather stockwhip on us modern people with our easy care gear.
Instead of watching mindless TV for half the night why not clean up your riding gear! It really isnt a back breaking job and I find that its easy to see when leather is worn, but plastic well thats anyones goes when a stirrup leather is going to go “snap” and put you on your head!
On this note I live in the tropics and I know about mould but I still swear by leather gear!
Great article! I laughed till I could hardly move - but I agree about the plastic bag thing.
G’day Rosalie,
My “plastic bag warrior” newsagent Rick thought it was funny too. He tells me that he sent it off to the NewsXpress head office in Melbourne. Rick tells me that the bosses there thought it was hilarious as well.
Pleased you got a laugh out of reading it, I was beginning to think it was only me and Rick who thought it was funny (although Rick probably didn’t really think it was funny at all, but told me he did because I’m a good customer) - although I wondered at his comment when I told him I was pleased he wasn’t offended and he replied - “no worries, if mates can’t have a blue and get over it - what’s it all about”. I walked away wondering when we’d had the blue - I couldn’t remeber - but I was pleased we were ‘over it’.
Cheers