February 29, 2008
The pernicious habit of “double-bagging”
I am encouraged to return to the topic of supermarkets and plastic bags by the Daily Mail, my former employer (a long time ago). It has just launched a campaign to stop the proliferation of plastic bags in the UK under the slogan: Banish the Bags.
The Mail estimates that 13bn flimsy plastic bags are handed out by British high street stores each year. It is a classic example of companies and consumers not having to pay the financial cost of environmental destruction and therefore not caring about it.
There are some efforts to curb plastic bag use in the US but I have a suggestion for one thing that all US supermarkets could stop: the pernicious habit of “double-bagging”.
Most stores in New York hand out extremely flimsy and cheap plastic bags which tear if any heavy load is placed in them. The staff therefore routinely place every plastic bag in another one, thus doubling the number of plastic bags at a stroke.
This is an absurd practice that all stores, even if they do nothing else, ought to stop.
It’s not at all an absurd practice — light items require 1 thin bag, heavy items require 2 thin bags (which is simpler than having thicker bags on hand).
Posted by: Mark | March 3rd, 2008 at 10:12 pm | Report this commentMost plastic bags are not wasted, they are reused as waste-paper bin liners. If the supermarkets stopped giving out bags they would have to bought.
Posted by: Paul Bennett | March 6th, 2008 at 1:20 am | Report this comment