Left Holding the… (2)

Recently, the Minister for the Environment in Australia, declared that he would legislate to ensure that plastic bags would no longer be ‘free’ for supermarket shoppers, in an effort to cut down the ‘problems’ that plastic shopping bags cause to the environment.

There is going to be a plethora of angry articles / comments over this ‘ban’ if it ever gets off the ground. (The Government has renounced the MP’s statement)

From time to time, I will share in this Weblog what others are saying.

Andrew Bolt in his column says:

in “Crossing a plastic border”

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’m not easily put off by a shop like Borders, you should understand.

In this case, I’ve long tolerated its haphazard stacking of classical CDs and foreign DVDs, its books thoroughly thumbed by its coffee shop customers, and the disengaged, overworked staff, who rarely know much about what they sell.

But my last straw broke last week when I got to the register with another four books for my children, bought on impulse on the way to the movies.

“Would you like a plastic bag?” I was asked, in the disapproving tones I’ve learned to accept from sales staff of a certain age and taste for studs.

Why Borders should be so down on a little plastic bag is a mystery, actually, given its business is selling stuff made of murdered trees and plasticised oil.

But, ever placid, I sweetly replied, yes, please – I would indeed like to carry those books in a bag rather than cart them into the cinema in my arms. Not that I said that last bit, of course.

And then I was told Borders now charged 10 cents for each bag.

I pointed out that the bag should be given for free as a service to customers kind enough to buy armfuls of the shop’s wares.

But the sales assistant informed me in tones sanctimonious that this 10 cents was for “the environment” – going to Coastcare, a green group I’d never heard of.

As I told her, to the increasing mortification of my 14-year-old son, if I wanted to donate to Coastcare I’d do it myself, and I do not need or want Borders to bully me into it.

As I huffed off with books unbagged, I heard her protest to a colleague that I was wrong to object because the bag levy really was for “the environment”.

Rubbish. It’s for Borders’ preening, and a green group’s grooming.

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.

But claims that the bags kill 100,000 animals a year have been completely discredited, and no study can swear they’re a big menace to wildlife or even the landscape.

Banning or restricting them is purely symbolic, and done at the cost not of retailers but customers.

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.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23469370-5000117,00.html

I couldn’t agree with him more!