New plastic bag levy

RedParrot

There is a new tax due to come in. The new tax will be for coffee cups and also heavier plastic bags, the bags that are marketed as a bag for life.

I'm not too happy or impressed with this new tax, especially for the heavier plastic bags. I presume this new tax would be on the bigger plastic bags from shops like dunnes or supervalu or tesco or Aldi. The original plastic bag levy was fantastic, I must admit. My problem with this new tax is that the heavier plastic bags are a must or need. It rains a lot here in Ireland. After the original plastic bag levy, a lot of stops stopped with plastic bags and moved over to paper bags which is complete rubbish walking down a shopping street in the rain.

I must admit, I can't remember the last time I bought one of the bigger plastic bags from a grocery shop. Would the price be about .80 cent? I suppose there is already a tax on such a bag like vat ot something. A new tax will bring up the price to about a euro.

Stheno

Just buy non plastic bags tbh

tayto lover

Another money making scheme for the Govt.
Nothing else.

tuxy

tayto lover wrote: »

Another money making scheme for the Govt.
Nothing else.

It did work for the regular plastic bags though

RedParrot

Stheno wrote: »

Just buy non plastic bags tbh

A reusable cotton bag is also useless in the rain. It will help you carry any purchases home but that's about it. Everything in the bag will be wet.

Fann Linn

tayto lover wrote: »

Another money making scheme for the Govt.
Nothing else.

It can be easily avoided.

Andrewf20

I really don't see the fuss. We've been using a pair of canvas bags for years now.

tuxy

Andrewf20 wrote: »

I really don't see the fuss. We've been using a pair of 2 canvas bags for years now.

Anyone who thinks it's too inconvenient to use a reusable coffee cup deserves to pay extra.

Andrewf20

tuxy wrote: »

Anyone who thinks it's too inconvenient to use a reusable coffee cup deserves to pay extra.

I agree. We have those too. Its not that big a deal once you get used to it.

lola85

In fairness supermarkets display 20 plastic bags in a packet for 1 euro beside the tills.

It’s just encouraging the same behavior from years ago.

shanec1928

They should just be banned outright. They have banned plastic bags in Kenya. Surly we can do it also.

Stheno

RedParrot wrote: »

A reusable cotton bag is also useless in the rain. It will help you carry any purchases home but that's about it. Everything in the bag will be wet.

Just buy cotton or canvas?

freshpopcorn

Mod NoteMoved from After Hours to here please follow local guidelines!

Ha Long Bay

lola85 wrote: »

In fairness supermarkets display 20 plastic bags in a packet for 1 euro beside the tills.

It’s just encouraging the same behavior from years ago.

Completely agree. They should be banned I have seen a full display of these beside checkouts. It even suggest what to use them for on the label.

Irish Guitarist

Tesco Bags For Life are absolute shit. They should be called 'Bag Until The Corner of A Pizza Box Rips It Into Shite'. Concentrate on making them last longer instead of charging more for them. 80 cent is already enough to stop people buying them needlessly.

Those really big bags are better but more unwieldy. They don't fit in your pocket and they're awkward if you're only carrying a couple of things.

tuxy

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

Tesco Bags For Life are absolute shit. They should be called 'Bag Until The Corner of A Pizza Box Rips It Into Shite'. Concentrate on making them last longer instead of charging more for them. 80 cent is already enough to stop people buying them needlessly.

Those really big bags are better but more unwieldy. They don't fit in your pocket and they're awkward if you're only carrying a couple of things.

You don't have to buy the bag in tesco. I use a rucksack but there are many options that may work for you.

dartboardio

New? :V


You mean higher!

If I had the facility or brain to remember to use a reusable coffee cup everytime I go for a coffee I would, but I don't, its obviously just not that high in my priority list (sorry earth)

However I do always use my own bags for shopping when I can (collect big cotton ones and reusable dealz, penneys ones etc)

Little changes are the most realistic and ones making a decent impact, I hate when people try shun others for not making sure the environment/earth/climate is number one priority at all times.

Especially when most only began caring in the last couple of years!

Stheno

dartboardio wrote: »

New? :V


You mean higher!

If I had the facility or brain to remember to use a reusable coffee cup everytime I go for a coffee I would, but I don't, its obviously just not that high in my priority list (sorry earth)

However I do always use my own bags for shopping when I can (collect big cotton ones and reusable dealz, penneys ones etc)

Little changes are the most realistic and ones making a decent impact, I hate when people try shun others for not making sure the environment/earth/climate is number one priority at all times.

Especially when most only began caring in the last couple of years!

Just put a cup in your bag?

Chris_Heilong

People already pay a lot for those heavy bags and is not some thing that is cheap and disposable like the smaller bags. We in Ireland are not going to save the planet, sorry for all those that think they are doing their part but it will have no effect what so ever, hell even the things you think you are recycling are just being sent to Asian to be burnt and poison Child workers.

tototoe

tuxy wrote: »

It did work for the regular plastic bags though

Did for a while, but apart from dunnes, tesco etc i havent been asked to pay for aplastic bag in any of my local shops, or the chinese or thai, indian etc in absolutely years....nor in many other smaller stores.
The increase is nonsense to be honest. If they really want to make changes, ban plastic bags altogether, plenty reusable alternatives available...but there is no money in that.

I'll pay whatever for the paper cups. Drinking out of those horrible lifetime ones isn't the same.

listermint

RedParrot wrote: »

There is a new tax due to come in. The new tax will be for coffee cups and also heavier plastic bags, the bags that are marketed as a bag for life.

I'm not too happy or impressed with this new tax, especially for the heavier plastic bags. I presume this new tax would be on the bigger plastic bags from shops like dunnes or supervalu or tesco or Aldi. The original plastic bag levy was fantastic, I must admit. My problem with this new tax is that the heavier plastic bags are a must or need. It rains a lot here in Ireland. After the original plastic bag levy, a lot of stops stopped with plastic bags and moved over to paper bags which is complete rubbish walking down a shopping street in the rain.

I must admit, I can't remember the last time I bought one of the bigger plastic bags from a grocery shop. Would the price be about .80 cent? I suppose there is already a tax on such a bag like vat ot something. A new tax will bring up the price to about a euro.

You are aware that supernarkets just avoided the plastic bag tax by creating these newer plastic bags saying bag for life thus creating big profits form themselves avoiding the tax and still creating plastic problems



I see no issue with this. We have to get supernarkets to start taking this seriously and equally with their crap plastic packaging. I'm sick of the amount of unavoidable waste I have to chuck because of what's on offer. These businesses are the cause of it.

dvdman1

Plastic bags and the likes shouldn't be produced in the 1st place, ban them outright

Also how much co2 does it take to produce them reusable bags, some cheap ones are loaded with plastic

listermint

dvdman1 wrote: »

Plastic bags and the likes shouldn't be produced in the 1st place, ban them outright

Also how much co2 does it take to produce them reusable bags, some cheap ones are loaded with plastic

The reusable bags co2 production is nonsense most are kept for years going through thousands of uses.

Smacking a drum about plastic content is silly.

Hal3000

Friend of mine from OZ said he came to Ireland in the 1980s. He went to Wicklow and said the place was heavily littered with plastic bags. Recently he returned and I brought him to Glendalough. He couldn’t believe the change. I hope this now occurs with Coffee cups and they eventually disappear from the landscape.

dvdman1

listermint wrote: »

The reusable bags co2 production is nonsense most are kept for years going through thousands of uses.

Smacking a drum about plastic content is silly.

My wife got a bags from iceland and mr price they didnt last thousands of times and theres lots of plastic in them.
Btw what do you mean by smacking a drum about plastic content being silly?
Did you miss the whole point in the 1st place why a levy was introduced and why were even talking about it?
Micro plastics isnt silly when they end up in the food chain.

stoneill

I'm old enough to remember supermarkets before plastic bags when they would only have paper bags or even cardboard crates and boxes that the supermarket didn't need anymore.

Plastic bags dished out by supermarkets are a fairly modern phenomenon in the grand scheme of things. People only started using them as the alternatives were taken away.
Just provide alternatives and people will use them.

kookiemonster

Hal3000 wrote: »

Friend of mine from OZ said he came to Ireland in the 1980s. He went to Wicklow and said the place was heavily littered with plastic bags. Recently he returned and I brought him to Glendalough. He couldn’t believe the change. I hope this now occurs with Coffee cups and they eventually disappear from the landscape.

This a million times, my wifes home is in rural Clare, 4miles from Ennis, or another way you could measure that distance is the amount of time it takes to drink a cup of coffee from from a certain chain in a service station. I regularly go running there and there are genuinely hundreds of cups in the bushes by the road, absolutely shocking. It wouldn't surprise me if it was the same pr1ck that does it daily on his morning /evening drive.

I hope the levy makes people think about what they are doing, but I guess we will see the proof in a few years time.

Seamai

Call me a snob but I never drink coffee from a paper/disposable cup, the idea of carrying around a reusable cup doesn't sound the most hygienic to me, I'd rather sit down and switch off for a few minutes while enjoying a nice mug or cuppa of jo.

Kat1170

Seamai wrote:

Call me a snob but I never drink coffee from a paper/disposable cup, the idea of carrying around a reusable cup doesn't sound the most hygienic to me, I'd rather sit down and switch off for a few minutes while enjoying a nice mug or cuppa of jo.

But what you're using IS a reusable cup. I'm presuming you wash them.

I'd rather see a deposit on the plastic drinks bottles, unreal how many you see dumped on the road or in general waste bins.