I have a confession to make, I am subscribed to Andrew Bolt’s blog. Yes, Andrew Bolt, the crazy environment hating global warming, capitalism loving right wing nutter. If nothing else it is good for a laugh and besides, it never hurt to look inside the mind of the enemy…. Anyway.A few day’s ago Mr Bolt posted a lengthy whinge post about being asked to pay 10c for a plastic bag;
BORDERS has at last crossed a border of my own – demanding I pay 10 cents for a plastic bag to carry home their books. This senseless green bullying is the last straw. For 10 cents it’s lost a customer who’s been worth hundreds of dollars a year. I’ve since learned that Borders is far from alone in this green bullying of customers. IKEA does much the same, and Bunnings doesn’t even give customers the option of a bag. Crazy. If plastic bags really were a public menace to rival cigarettes or a Tim Flannery, I could understand such finger-wagging and 10-cent fines. Enough of this hectoring, moral show-boating and donating with other people’s money. It’s the principle of the thing: If Borders wants to donate to Coastcare, let it do so with its cash, not mine. And give me my damn bag. [Source]
Mr Bolt seems to have gotten his knickers in a major knot over something very trivial. While I am tempted to agree with his point that some plastic bag figures are blown our of proportion, I am still against them in many ways. The fact is they are a non-renewable resource intensive items
This reminds me of an experience I have been meaning to share but have not had the time to do (expect this to be the last entry for a while, am stil very busy). Last week while buying a new pair of shoes I literally had to fight with the sales assistant for her to not give me a plastic bag! Madness indeed. She at first offered me an overpriced and ugly ‘City Beach Canvas Bag’ which I declined (it was in excess of $3, ugly and un-needed). She then offered a plastic bag which I refused. For the next 2 minutes while I paid for the item she constantly nagged me about taking a plastic bag because surely it must be inconvinient for me to carry them without a bag, I explained I didn’t mind and finally left with no shoes sans bag. A crazy world…
Thanks to reader Shane for emailing me about the article. If you have any news tips please send them to contact.hstae@gmail.com
As for you Andrew, I suggest you stop being such an arrogant, tight arse whinger, build a bridge and get over it =)
..and Pete, I will get round to the survey one of these days…
Nice blog – good post. I agree the shopping bag thing is overhyped (consider making a pile of all the packaging of a weeks shopping, and stack that next to the 6 plastic bags that shopping came in – I’d guess the shopping bags would be 1/20th of the mass of other wrappers, tins, bags within bags etc). However, typically retarded for a right-wing thinker to complain about a 10c fee.
Excellent blog!
How is it that the existence of environment-friendly “plastic bags” has been completely left out of the current public discussion. My local IGA supermarket has these as a matter of course and – given the subsequent re-usefulness of supermarket bags – WHY SHOULDN’T THEY BE MADE OUT OF STARCH ? Legislate that, new broom government!
It seems the government is more interested in collecting a tax than -actually- saving the environment.
Maybe the independent supermarkets and starch bag manufacturers don’t make enough political donations.
did I send that to you?? seemed like ages ago if it was..
Don’t miss the main point: Plastic bags kill marine life. Once a plastic bag gets into the ocean, it becomes a serial killer of creatures such as sea turtles. These animals mistake the bags for jellyfish and eat them. Once the first victim has decomposed, the durable bag will continue to kill. “Degradable” and bio-degradable bags don’t last as long, but they can still kill sea life.
The oceans are in as much trouble as it is due to rising temperatures, overfishing and pollution from animal farm waste.
Just bring your own reusable freaking bag. Andrew Bolt is a dick.
Doesn’t anyone else find it odd that Borders of all companies would be trying to save the environment? I mean, c’mon, you sell chopped up trees treated and covered in thousands of chemicals! A day will come when eBooks rule the world, then where will Borders be? Out on the street! Why are they ushering this day in sooner? I don’t think they really care about the environment, but pretending you do sure is good for business.
Ha!
The post is only has half as entertaining as the comments on it (43 at last count).
There’s another ping-pong session with the environmentalists and anti-environmentalists.
itsrosss, Yeah, the irony.
But hey, at least they are trying.
Here’s an excerpt from ‘anna’ and employee.
“i work at a borders store, and today we all had a big laugh at your article! after all, we’re used to people complaining about the charge for bags, which began on the 1st of february. i was inspired to comment, just to show an insider’s perspective. considering you haven’t heard of coastcare – they do an amazing job cleaning up beaches and coastline, researching soil and dune erosion, and protecting the beach and the habitat it provides for animals. apparently not a noble enough cause worthy of 10c! a bit too lefty-environmental for you, andrew? we found out today that since we started charging for bags, 70% of people now refuse a bag, and 10% opt to purchase a reusable bag. ”
Her response was more reserved than most of the others.