Angel or Devil?
How hard is it to live in an ethical way?
In this section we ask you to challenge us to make certain lifestyle changes each week.
Though the intention is that these changes will lead to better living we are not opposed to attempting anything providing it is legal and technically possible!
Week Six - If you don't ask you'll never get.
We might talk about the ills of the world but what can we do about them? Well - quite a bit really. We elect officials to act for us so for starters we can ask them to take action on our behalf.
This week we will be posing questions to our MP's - but doing our homework before we do. MP's are busy people so we need to ensure we don't waste their time. See how we get along.
Ollie
Susie
Lara
Previous challenges and results
Living in Bethnal Green Ollie has George Galloway as his MP. Will he be too busy trying to avoid the wrath of his constituents to listen to their requests?
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Hey Ollie Ollie - where are you? Are you still trying to get your head around contacting someone who you have witnessed wearing a lycra outfit pretending to be a cat...? (Susie)
Thursday
Friday
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Ms S Wheeldon senior always gets thanked for Susie's requests to her MP. Will she be tempted to defer responsibility for this weeks challenge to her Mum?
Monday
Not much today other than signing up to loads of stuff when I loaded up the Campaigns, Boycotts and Protest page.
Tuesday
Oh so so so too carried away with the excitement.
Four hours of looking through stuff on the tax in Ireland on plastic bags to see if this is a good thing, if we are intending to do the same here and trying to undertand the general mysteries of Private Member's Bills.
Will have to let you know all of the details in the Wednesday bit though as I got so carried away with the research I haven't had chance to analysis it yet. Check out the Daily for details.
Wednesday
Oh the world of plastic bags is fascinating indeed. Here are some of the exciting links I have been finding:
Reusablebags.com has a running tally of the number of plastic bags used this year. By the time you read this it is probably going to be near 73,000,000,000 - it also details some benefits of a plastic bag tax.
Ireland plastic bag levy hailed as a great success - report by the BBC from mid-2002.
Other nations are also taking positive and practical steps to curb the unnecessary wastage of bags, many by simply banning plastic bags entirely.
In the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh bags are outlawed.
In South Africa, where bags are often recycled by the poorest for other purposes, there is a ban.
And I was even sent details showing that Somaliland, "a self-declared independent state in the north of one of the world's poorest and most anarchic war-zones" has banned plastic bags on environmental grounds.
Yet, here and in the US we are still having trouble diminishing our plastic bag usage.
In Scotland, Labour MSP's blocked a plastic bag tax.
In San Francisco city supervisors have done a U-turn on a 17c charge despite the fact that shoppers in the City alone use 50 million bags annually.
And, although Michael Meacher, the previous Minister for the Environment backed a ban in 2002, I have not yet found any thing to show what then happened to his suggestion.
In Scotland, Labour ministers rejected the idea as they felt a fee to be too much for the poorest in the country to bear. Perhaps there was a similar stumbling block for supporters in the UK?
There must be a way around that though.
I have some figures depicting how much would it cost differnt groups in real terms so I will have a look through them and get the info. up here too. (Might need another coffee before looking at anything mathematical though!)
Anyhow - regardless of what our Government is or isn't doing - as an interim measure there is no harm in simply trying to use less bags ourselves.
Thursday
Reasons plastic bag use in general is a bad thing:
They are bad for animals
Birds might get caught in them. Animals may eat them and die and creatures of the sea might think they are friendly jellyfish and then get an unpleasant surprise.
They contribute to rubbish on our streets
Though this is a wider issue of rubbish in general of which plastic bags are only a small part.
Finite oil reserves are used to make them
"Plastic bags are manufactured from ethylene, a by-product of oil and gas refining, and therefore a non-renewable and finite resource." - Scottish Parliamentary Review
Less Environmental Damage
Plastic bags are made from polyethylene. Once in the environment, it can take hundreds of years for them to breakdown. When they do decompose they release tiny elements of toxic waste into the earth and seas.
Reasons for a plastic bag tax:
1 - It has been proven to lead to drastic decreases in plastic bag use.
reuseablebags.org notes that the Irish Bag Tax was:
"Designed to rein in their rampant consumption of 1.2 billion plastic shopping bags per year, the tax resulted in a 90% drop in consumption, and approximately 1 billion fewer bags consumed annually."
2 - There has not been a massive increase in paper bag use seen in Ireland:
Although the levy does not apply to paper bags, these have not replaced plastic shopping bags in the supermarket sector.” - Nolan-ITU (2002)
Moreover estimates that paper bag use would rise as a result of a tax are vastly reduced if a tax is imposed on paper bags as well as plastic.
In addition, Friends of the Earth in Scotland note that:
"Anecdotal evidence from Ireland overwhelmingly suggests that consumers switched to reusable bags – exactly the kind of change in behaviour that the levy was aiming to stimulate."
3 - Some businesses would benefit. There would be increases in the sales of 'bags for life' and bin liners. Jobs would be created in relation to these sales increases and for in the administration of the levy.
4 - Money raised from the levy can be pumped back into recycling schemes. The UN Environment Programme explains that the Irish will be investing 35 million euros from the levy into new schemes.
Reasons against a tax are:
1 - "Plastic bags constitute 0.3% of the municipal waste stream in the UK (HM Treasury 2002). The AEAT report highlights that any reduction in the amount of plastic bags disposed of would have
very little effect on the overall waste disposal figures." - Scottish Parlaimentary Review.
2 - More paper bags will be used which will mean that there is more waste in landfills. The Sunday Herald notes that when paper decomposes it produces more carbon than plastic.
3 - A levy would cost households on average £10 per year.
4 - Job loss - The Carrier Bag Consortium estimate that up to 700 jobs would have been lost in the plastics industry if the tax had been implemented in Scotland. (The website also raises other objections to the tax.)
5 - Set up costs - advertising the scheme and implementing the systems to adminster it.
6 - Small businesses would lose revenue as they would need to put time consuming procedures in place to pay the tax to local authorities.
7 - There would be competitive disadvantages if this was not implemented across the UK.
So what to do?!
Hmmmm have to hop out for a bit but will come back with some suggestions a bit later.
Friday
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Lara has moved a lot in London. She might just need to check who her MP is...
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Hey La - you too? Mind you to be fair you have been getting details for the plastic bag one too.
Which was your idea that I stole...
Sorry.... (Susie)
Thursday
Friday
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Results of week 5 challenge - It's all talk
Results of week 4 challenge - smiling
Result of week 3 challenge - create things
Results of week 2 challenge - energy efficiency
Results of week 1 challenge - no meat
