Shopping Tax?, We will soon have to pay for plastic bags! Options

[Biker1]

Any views on this new tax to be imposed upon us by the Lib Dems?
Pandering to the Green Lobby?
Personally I think it is just a drop in the ocean because a large percentage of our food (and other) shopping is packed in plastic.
Perhaps we should be tackling that first!?

[MontyPython]

Cameron's done well there!

Clegg must have been pestering him for ages to let him announce something big at his conference, so Dave says "there you go mate!"

[Simon Kirby]

Personally I think it is just a drop in the ocean ...

Quite.

[NWNREADER]

I'm slightly confused, as the 'charge' is not being announced as a tax. Where will the money go? How will it get there? How will the bags be accounted for? Otherwise not much to stop shops just giving them away......

I'd rather see a 1p/litre charge on bottled water. Simple tax paid at point of preparation. No need in the UK for bottled water........ Plus the bottles create more waste than bags do, whether plastic or glass.

[Andy Capp]

I'm slightly confused, as the 'charge' is not being announced as a tax. Where will the money go? How will it get there? How will the bags be accounted for? Otherwise not much to stop shops just giving them away......

Only for supermarkets and the money will go to charitable causes.

I'd rather see a 1p/litre charge on bottled water. Simple tax paid at point of preparation. No need in the UK for bottled water........ Plus the bottles create more waste than bags do, whether plastic or glass.

I doubt 1p/litre would make any difference; plus, plastic bottles are recyclable.

[NWNREADER]

Only for supermarkets and the money will go to charitable causes.

I doubt 1p/litre would make any difference; plus, plastic bottles are recyclable.

How will the money be collected, and how will it get to the 'charitable causes'? Who selects them?

Plastic bags are too..... The problem is, people do not recycle them........

[JeffG]

About time too! I have no sympathy for people who can't be bothered to take their own bags.

[MontyPython]

Perhaps we should bring back the dog licence at say £100 per year do account for the environmental damage done (carbon Footprint) making their food.

[NWNREADER]

Recent governments have looked for absolutely anything they can tax, either by stealth or by open policy, in order to pay for a myriad of things (including their self-created debt). And when they cannot manage, they offload to the local authorities so they have to raise Council Tax. Then they cap Council Tax so they have to charge for other things......
Be wary what you wish for......

As for the dog licence, it was 7/6d (37.5p) for so long it became a joke, certainly inefficient to collect. These days, by the time pensioners, the homeless, those on benefits etc had been exempted there would be too few to make any tax worthwhile.

[betsy]

Got no problem with that. I have taken my own bags for years. What does annoy me is the amount of plastic I can't put in the recycling although it is marked as being recyclable? Margarine cartons, meat, fruit and veg containers for example. They all have the sticker on saying I should recycle them but Newbury doesn't want them. Why not. Did they buy the wrong kind of machinery?

[Biker1]

I'm slightly confused, as the 'charge' is not being announced as a tax.

I'm slightly confused as well.
If the tax is to stop the buying of plastic bags then surely the end result should be no bags purchased so no money raised for charity*.
If it does not stop the purchase of bags and raises the money then surely we still have a plastic bag problem??
(*Have you seen how much top directors of charities are paid theses days?)
Or here where the result of the poll is interesting.

[Nothing Much]

Bag loads of dosh ?
ce

[Andy Capp]

Plastic bags are too..... The problem is, people do not recycle them........

Yes they do, but it just takes longer!

[Andy Capp]

I'm slightly confused as well.
If the tax is to stop the buying of plastic bags then surely the end result should be no bags purchased so no money raised for charity*.
If it does not stop the purchase of bags and raises the money then surely we still have a plastic bag problem??
(*Have you seen how much top directors of charities are paid theses days?)
Or here where the result of the poll is interesting.

Apparently a tax on bags works in terms of reducing bag use, and as the 'tax' is designed to reduce bag use and not to fill the coffers of charities, then it is job done.

[motormad]

About time too! I have no sympathy for people who can't be bothered to take their own bags.

Because it's annoying and pikey?

[JeffG]

Because it's annoying and pikey?

No, because it's anti-social.

[Andy Capp]

No, because it's anti-social.

That's a bit strong, or mellow dramatic, is it not?

[motormad]

No, because it's anti-social.

Ah yes.
Anti social because I don't take my old shopping bags back to the shop.
How wrong of me.
What a bad person I am, and what bad people we are in society for allowing it to happen..

NOT.

[MontyPython]

...
As for the dog licence, it was 7/6d (37.5p) for so long it became a joke, certainly inefficient to collect. These days, by the time pensioners, the homeless, those on benefits etc had been exempted there would be too few to make any tax worthwhile.

Why exempt anyone. The environmental damage is the same.

As for the unemployed why should we fund their pets as well?

[MontyPython]

No, because it's anti-social.

What is anti-social about getting a plastic bag from a supermarket?