"Kim Bolton" wrote in message
...
Jethro_uk wrote:

I would be curious if there's been any research (as opposed to Daily Mail
headlines) as to whether people who don't pay charges are any more
wasteful than those who do.

You should meet my mid-80s mother-in-law.

I don't really know the reason why - it might be
something to do with WWII, but I'm not sure - but she has to have a
'stock' of everything. In the days when she could get out and do her
own shopping, it included having a 'stock' of supermarket plastic
bags. We estimate she had 20,000 of them, before SWMBO threw them
out. She won't eat food in her freezer (because it's her 'stock') so
lives on sandwiches. She's been prescribed a medicated cream for a
skin condition, but won't use it as she doesn't have a 'stock' of
it, so saves it up. No 'stock' item is ever used for anything.

But one day SWMBO came across her 'stock' of medication - most of it
was out of date, and there was enough to fill a big bin liner. SWMBO
costed it as being over £1000-worth of medications, all useless and
wasted. and that was dished out on a monthly-prescription basis.

Sure, but its not feasible to design a system around a few loons
like that and there arent likely to be enough of those to matter.