g'day george,

on the plastic bag issue i have a different outlook, i tend to think
laterally and outside the square and comfort zone, those attributes make it
easdy to adopt change needed for earth friendlier living.

for 1.. where did the push come from for consumers to adopt change? from the
governements of our countries is where, and they where preasured by vested
interests namely the retailers of groceries. the price of those "free"
plastic bags has been factored into every item you buy. s for me i would
waqnt to see the retailers drop the prices of all their range before i would
consider change, or it just simply becomes more profit for shareholder.

2.. those so called dreaded plastic bags break down very quickly in direct
sunshine, you could put them in a wire container and in a month they will be
nothing but dust.

3 the so called enviro' friendly bags are made of polymers (alomost
impossible to break down), and when they are in total use paid for by the
consumer they too will end up as litter but they will last longer, plus
those green/blue/red whatever coloured bags are made in china.

just for me i think we need to tread carefully when something is thrust upon
us by the very people who are crueling our environment with their excesses.
there are plenty of other real issues to get the public behind, i feel
anyhow just how i see it. we use those bags to collect household
(non-reusable/recycle) waste into saves buying just as equaly bad bin bags,
which don't break down as quickly as do those recycled plastic grocery bags.
in permaculture anything that we create that will rot or break down stays on
site, and plastic shopping bags are low on the priority of waste off site
product there are lots of wrapping from grocery stores that have to be
dumped so we also need to be aware of "if you can't recycle it on sight in
your garden then don't bring it home", would rather see more paper wrapping
used.

the hidden problems film wraps. polystyrene, plastic food containers. we
need to return to grease-proof paper, glass containers, tin containers. but
food processors are pushing more and more porduct into plastic containers
agin they don't break down, and recycling plastics is itself an unfriendly
process.

take care my friend

len

http://www.users.bigpond.com/gardenlen1/

snipped