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Bags and Bags
The government pledged to supportthe campaign to reduce the number of plastic bags shops give, or charge, customers for but thisyear the number of bags used has gone up.
The bagsare a hazard for wildlife andcan remain in landfill for a thousand years.I don't know whether I am being simplistic, but why not make more use of biodegradable bags which, although still a danger to animals, would eventuallydecompose. Putting up the price of carrier bagswould also cut down on their use.
Years ago, peopleusedstring shopping bagsand if they bought more than they expected to, they were given paper carrier bags.The bags werenot meant to carry heavy weights but just the odd thing.
My aunt usually had the oddpaper carrier bag tucked away in a cupboard somewhere. We called it a'cwdin brown', (brown carrier).
Living in the country, not off the beaten track but close to a main road, tramps often knocked on her door, askingfor hot waterto make tea in their billy cans. Whether or not Auntie Mary believed that Elijah would come back as a beggar, she always cut some sandwiches and added cake, biscuits, whatever she had to hand, to give to the tramp. The food was put in a 'cwdin brown'.
I was looking at an article about decluttering recently (it's so nice to sit back andlearn how to simplify life, without moving from the chair). It claimed that the last thing women will disposeofare paper carrier bags from dress shops. I hold on to mine, likingto be reminded of different places I've shopped, especially when I've been on holiday.
Last year, one evening, we walked along the quay in Cannes, looking at the yachts that had tied up.
Lights were twinkling, people were eatingsupper on deck. One yacht had a liveried butler serving food (we acted casual, made it appear as though it was an every day story of country folk to us).
We noticed someone had left a Hermes paper carrierby a bin, ready for therefuse collection. Now, that's a bagI would have liked to peek in.
Hi Emyr, again, I'm not sure how to edit my 'comments' but I meant to say 'bees', not wasps (wasps don't swarm) in my comment.
Hi Emyr, Yes, use of plastic bags in Wales and Ireland has gone down but, overall,more bags have been used on a national level. This may be because people are becoming blase about them. Constant vigilance is requiredand compostable bags, as Gaabi mentions, are the green alternative.
We are given degradable bagsfor food wastein Pembrokeshire but the other bags the council provide for paper, plastic,tinrecycling and whatever rubbish does not fit these categories and are not biodegrable, as far as I know.
Also, the councilhas providedmassive compost bins forpotato and vegetable peelings,which we fill, but ours is full of woodlice, which I could not use on the garden because woodlice (moch y coed) eat the roots of flowers.
Most of my neighbours have lawns (I have a lot of gravel) and we donot require these bins for compost.
Recently, I put some pineapple peel in mine and it attracted wasps, which we thought might swarm. I poured cold soapy water over the bin then played the hose on it until the wasps disappeared.
My knowledge of the adverse effects of food wrapped in cling film is limited but I think we need to get away from it as much as possible.
The number of plastic bags in Wales has actualy been reduced,and in Wales WAG has passed that from next month,shops will have to start charging customers for them to reduce the number even further.
I think the city of Portland (where I live) has voted to outlaw the disposable plastic bags. Stores here give paper bags away and people mostly use cloth bags. When we (Ceri and I) have done sales at events we buy the compostable bags, they're not that much. I'd happily pay a few cents a bag to use those at a store if I needed to.
When my daughter Kate was young she sent forabook fromBarbara Woodhouse, the dog trainer. Barbara postedthe book and slipped in a little note.
After that we followed Barbara in the newspaper whenever we could. When Barabara travelled to America she put her belongings intwo carrier bags. I don't know whether she used the samebags to come home.