Not fair! Public ripped off by big business in plastic bag ban - prices should be lowered

[ukrules]

7 hours ago, Andrew23 said:

Why must I carry bags everywhere just because someone believes that a plastic bag ban may save the planet?

I don't. I just buy a new bag every time I need one then I throw it on top of all the others I have when I'm done with it.

 

Eventually I will throw them all away...

[unblocktheplanet]

We had a patterned kids' blanket made of the same stuff as those heavy 'green' reuseable bags. It disintegrated so badly, we're finding tiny blowaway plastic chips YEARS later.

[digger70]

7 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

You don't have to carry bags, just get on the interenet and order all you need - they will deliver to you.

 

Simple, next ?

In Plastic Bags ? and charge more ? nothing for free .

[Beggar]

4 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

 

Maybe then the next time you take a breathe, it might just be of particulate matter PM2.5 which has no smell, it's invisible, naked to the eye and is small enough to go through your bloodstream into your to your lungs, it's pretty much everywhere, and guess where it comes from amongst other places, perhaps from everyone burning plastic, yep and guess who needs to breath in clear fresh air with no particulate matter, maybe this is why everyone's longevity is threatened with around 9 million plus lives taken annually from PM2.5 related illnesses.

 

A lot comes from traffic - for instance from tires, brakes and the asphalt of the road. Then you have the industry. Here in the Pattaya Chonburi area you have in addition the harbor with big ships and... 

[Burma Bill]

7 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

You don't have to carry bags, just get on the interenet and order all you need - they will deliver to you.

 

Simple, next ?

Delivered in plastic bags???

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, Andrew23 said:

Why must I carry bags everywhere just because someone believes that a plastic bag ban may save the planet?

Unbelievable question !

[zydeco]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Srisuwan Janya has accused retailers of violating consumers' rights by not providing sustainable alternatives to plastic bags. 

 

He told the Office of the Consumer Protection Board in Chaeng Wattana yesterday that the public are being taken for a ride. 

 

Big business is saving money but they are giving nothing in return, said the activist.

Sounds like he is smarter than most of the old farangs posting their anti plastic hysteria on TVF.

[tifino]

after 20+ years experience with shopping in ALDI; I simply follow my now emdedded habit - of raiding the shelves, and any Shelf Packer's trolley - for the emptied product boxes 

 

  - besides; boxes are more stable in the car boot, than any sort of flimsy bag

 

[KhaoYai]

Don't know what all the fuss is about. The 'bag for life' scheme was introduced in the UK a couple of years back and seems to be working - once you get used to not forgeting to take them with you.

 

This involves a better quality bag being bought - I believe the cost is around 15p up (UK) and most supermarkets will replace them for free if they break/wear out.

 

At first I thought the 15p charge wasn't enough to make people stop getting a new one every time they visit the supermarket. However, when I shop, plenty of people seem to be bringing their 'Bag for Life' with them.

 

We seem to have got used to things being the wrong way around - i.e. shops providing bags not us taking a bag with us. Its not that long ago that the norm was the opposite. Hopefully this will now start to be reversed.

[NoshowJones]

8 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

You don't have to carry bags, just get on the interenet and order all you need - they will deliver to you.

 

Simple, next ?

That's fine if you live in a city, but what about those who live up in the boonies? No one is going to travel 60 Ks to bring me milk and butter.

[hotchilli]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Srisuwan Janya has accused retailers of violating consumers' rights by not providing sustainable alternatives to plastic bags.

My local Big C has converted it's one [and only] express check-out to non-plastic bags available

However they offer 'spun-bound" plastic bags at 75 baht each as an alternative?

 

[Scot123]

8 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

You don't have to carry bags, just get on the interenet and order all you need - they will deliver to you.

 

Simple, next ?

I ofn thought about this over the years but get the feeling I will be given near sell by date and not the freshest in the shop. I pay my money I want the freshest I can buy. 

[Beggar]

24 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

That's fine if you live in a city, but what about those who live up in the boonies? No one is going to travel 60 Ks to bring me milk and butter.

A water buffalo giving milk should not be too far away. ????????????

[tifino]

35 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

Don't know what all the fuss is about. The 'bag for life' scheme was introduced in the UK a couple of years back and seems to be working - once you get used to not forgeting to take them with you.

 ... a bit useless for the problem way over in LOS though

[rech]

9 hours ago, gaikhao said:

Unreasonable claim. The bags cost a few satang and most of the companies had already pledged any savings to green activity. I saw the same complaints in western  countries where bags were withdrawn: they were dismissed outright there  as well.

 

 

Great ! Thanks to gullible people like you, they can go ont scamming us !

And you will be the one paying for our trash bags maybe ?

 

 

[billd766]

1 hour ago, zydeco said:

Sounds like he is smarter than most of the old farangs posting their anti plastic hysteria on TVF.

To me he is talking bovine excretia.

[KhaoYai]

35 minutes ago, tifino said:

 ... a bit useless for the problem way over in LOS though

Why? It is perfectly feasible for Thai supermarkets to do the same - people just have to lose the notion that its the shop's responsibility to supply bags, it never used to be like that.

 

It shouldn't matter, even if a bag cost 100 baht if its going to be used multiple times and even better if its replaced free of charge.

[KhaoYai]

50 minutes ago, rech said:

And you will be the one paying for our trash bags maybe ?

Another habit that is actually easy to stop. Like many, I used to use supermarket carrier bags to line my kitchen bin and again, like many I said "how ridiculous, now I will have to buy bin liners". In fact I don't - you might have to get your hands a little dirty but its quite easy to wash out your kitchen bin you know?

 

Carrier bags are just one item but its the whole throwaway society thing that we have all got so used to. The amount waste created by this is incredible - not only is it bad for the planet, its a disposal nightmare.  Some countries, notably Brazil (I think but deffo somewhere in South America) have run out of landfill sites and are now just dumping rubbish in open countryside. Indonesia is another - with open rubbish dumps close to watercourses and wildlife foraging amongst them.  Its the old 'out of sight, out of mind' thing and it will come back to bite us on the ass.  Look at Mcdonalds, Starbucks etc. - the amount of waste they create is unbelieveable and we are all guilty of using that 'convenience'..

 

Everyone focuses on plastic bags but this issue goes far deeper than that. The way we consume and the way we dispose of the waste consumption creates has to change - not can, has to. The current situation is simply unsustainable.

Edited January 7, 2020 by KhaoYai

[KhaoYai]

2 hours ago, zydeco said:

Sounds like he is smarter than most of the old farangs posting their anti plastic hysteria on TVF.

Hysteria?  Have you seen where this stuff ends up? Do you think you have a right to pollute the planet?

[evadgib]

1 hour ago, tifino said:

 ... a bit useless for the problem way over in LOS though

I took the post to mean that he/we're already used to it.

[Calach]

Seeing how they used to distribute multiple plastic bags for the smallest items, doubling them when not necessary, using several when one was largely sufficient, I really doubt they were such a huge expense for "big business". Their overuse of plastic bags was actually quite revolting, even for the least eco-friendly among us. 

 

If consumers' rights advocate want to pick a fight I'm pretty sure there are more interesting battles to lead in Thailand. Just use a bloody reusable bag or buy a dirt cheap one on site. 

[tifino]

6 minutes ago, evadgib said:

1 hour ago, tifino said:

 ... a bit useless for the problem way over in LOS though

I took the post to mean that he/we're already used to it.

... I now see I had missed putting 'is' between 'problem' and 'way' That typo mistake waylaid the context of my answer to the earlier Post... 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

7 hours ago, billd766 said:

Despite that, Srisuwan Janya has accused retailers of violating consumers' rights by not providing sustainable alternatives to plastic bags. There is no entitlement for the shop to give you bags and there never was.

 

The things this guy seems to complain/protest about vs. the blatant things he keeps quite about are quite a study in contrasts. 

 

He may be described in the OP as a consumer advocate, but he's often more of an advocate for the conservative establishment that runs the country.

 

Friend of the little guy? I think not!

 

[HHTel]

6 hours ago, Andrew23 said:

I have more probability to die from an alien invasion than get sick from a fish polluted with plastic from a 7/11 bag. So, it would be more rational to stop using our TV and phone because its waves emission may uncover our presence on the Earth to aliens.

Quote

Sir David Attenborough has warned that the growing tide of plastic pollution is killing up to a million people as year as well as having devastating consequences on the environment.

A report on the impact of plastic pollution, one of the first to document the impact of discarded plastic on the health of the poorest people in the world, estimates that between 400,000 and one million people die every year because of diseases and accidents linked to poorly managed waste in developing countries.

Sir David, whose Blue Planet TV programme alerted the world to the damage plastic was wreaking on the oceans, says that the effects of plastic pollution is an “unfolding catastrophe that has been overlooked for too long”.

He said it was time to act “not only for the health of our planet, but for the wellbeing of people around the world”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/plastics-killing-million-people-year-warns-sir-david-attenborough/

[meand]

I have been having trouble getting home with the groceries without the bags so I decided to buy a new car. Not sure which is better, the belching diesel or the bags?

[impulse]

6 hours ago, tifino said:

after 20+ years experience with shopping in ALDI; I simply follow my now emdedded habit - of raiding the shelves, and any Shelf Packer's trolley - for the emptied product boxes 

 

  - besides; boxes are more stable in the car boot, than any sort of flimsy bag

 

The vast majority of locals don't have a car boot...

[impulse]

10 hours ago, billd766 said:

My 5 cloth bags that I bought from Makro were about 29 baht each last year.

 

And if you use them 137 times each, they'll have the same environmental impact as single use plastic bags.  Gotta look at cradle to grave.  Not just one end or the other.

 

[MaxYakov]

"Srisuwan suggested that the consumer should expect lower prices for having to provide items to carry their shopping themselves."

 

And we who convert our currencies to Thai Baht should get a better price. The strong baht is costing me thousands of baht monthly. The plastic bag ripoff, if there is such a thing is a comparative trifle.

[ukrules]

15 hours ago, billd766 said:

I guess that you will have to buy bin bags like many of us do or go without. Whichever way the problem is yours.

You gave me an idea.

 

Maybe I will buy a pack of garbage bags while shopping, then at the checkout I will open them up and load my shopping into the garbage bags while telling  them that they should really be selling me an alternative.

 

I'm going to do this - I forgot that they sell cheap and plentiful bags inside the store I'm shopping in, this is going to be epic ????

 

I will load my shopping into garbage bags at the checkout.

Edited January 7, 2020 by ukrules

[Monomial]

I've gone around on this with several people about the best way to punish retailers who stand to make windfall profits with this "no bag" scam.  The best solution we've come up with is actually fairly simple.

 

All of these major retail chains already have loyalty point systems. The retailers must be required by law to modify their point system software in order to give another kind of point everytime a purchase is made, the total value of said points to be equivalent to the extra profits they are receiving by not having to supply the plastic bags.  These points need to be redeemable for cash, which the associated retailer would need to pay on demand, and any sales made without a loyalty card need to have these points assigned to a central fund controlled by the government.  This solves 2 major problems vs. the windfall profits tax on gross sales:

 

1. Big ticket items that don't use bags anyway would simply not generate cash points in this scheme, so there is no need to distinguish between "baggable" revenues and non baggable sales.

2. The money gets returned directly to the people who are being inconvenienced, so there is no concern over who will manage the scheme.

 

Of course, the retailers would not make any money under this scenario, and since that is the primary reason for this "no bag" scam (the environment just being a cover story), you can expect them to scream loudly and be willing to dump oil in the oceans before they agree to it.  But if people who support "no bags" genuinely support the environment rather than simply want to help the elite and wealthy make even bigger profits, then this is a much better way to do it. 

 

Everyone will stop fighting the "no bag" policy if they are getting paid for it.

 

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by Monomial