It seems now that whenever you buy something from a shop you are automatically given a plastic bag to put it in, even if you are buying only one item. if you try to persuade the cashier that you are fine and have a rucksack, you're often given a look that says either 'how on earth will you carry that?' or that they haven't done their job well enough!Customer service seems to have taken much higher worth in the minds of the cashiers than the gratuitous waste that accompanies purchase. When reading so much about the enormous environmental issues associated with the vast amount of plastic that is starting to litter the world, it is odd to see that such a negligent attitude is taken to shopping bags- hundreds of thousands of which surely are discarded into a larger bin bag when the shopper gets home.
However rather than the cashiers being to blame it is beyond the store managers and up to the regional managers. It appears that some of the supermarkets (Marks & Spencer and Budgens) have already returned to charging a fee for plastic bags and it seems that the Government seems to be taking heed of this problem. This is especially good news given the amazing success a similar scheme has had in Ireland (with a drop in plastic bag usage of a whopping 90%). Lets hope that the Government move on this and if they operate it as a taxation scheme that the tax actually goes into other green schemes.
As with many things it's more of a shift in attitude that is needed rather than individual actions like this. However it takes people in responsibility to pass that change down. Charging for plastic bags is a start but there is still far too much plastic packaging on most products from shops, which also needs to start being tackled and this is something that would be great to see.
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