On 7/2/2018 5:34 AM, BurfordTJustice wrote:
Australian supermarkets work to prevent "bag rage" as plastics ban takes
effect

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's biggest supermarket chains are scrambling to
combat "bag rage" as frustrated shoppers vent their anger over the removal
of single-use plastic bags.

One man put his hands around a supermarket worker's throat, the West
Australian newspaper reported, while grocery stores are putting on more
staff to help customers get used to the change.

The removal of single-use plastics is part of a national push to reduce
waste. As of July 1, major retailers in all but two Australian states will
be fined if they supply single-use plastic bags. National supermarket chain
Coles, owned by Wesfarmers, on Sunday removed single-use plastic bags from
its stores, shortly after rival Woolworths banned the bags on June 20.

Consumer complaints forced Woolworths to backflip on charging customers 15
Australian cents (11 U.S. cents) for a reusable plastic bag, with the
retailer now offering them free until July 8.

"They just want a little extra help from us to get through the transition,"
said Claire Peters, Woolworths managing director, in an emailed statement.

After seeing the backlash at its rival, Coles said it would open every
checkout lane on Sunday to reduce queue lengths as staff explain the changes
to customers.

"We are taking a proactive step," a Coles spokesperson said in an emailed
statement.

The union that represents Australian shop assistants has launched a public
awareness campaign on the issue.

"While we understand that some customers may be frustrated by this change,
there is absolutely no excuse for abusive or violent behaviour towards
retail staff," said Gerard Dwyer, national secretary of the Shop,
Distributive and Allied Employees' Association, in a statement on the union
website.

The union conducted a survey earlier this week and of 132 members who
responded, 57 said they suffered abuse due to the plastic bag ban.

More than 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the world's oceans each
year, according to United Nations Environment Programme figures.

The U.N. wants to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022 and says more than 60
countries have so far taken steps to ban or reduce plastic consumption.



I don't consider myself to be a tree hugger but when plastics show up
in the wild fish we eat it's not good.
yeah there's a problem,
https://www.treehugger.com/plastic/p...-overview.html
and yeah, plastic in the ecosystem ..
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/...y-environment/

On Thu, 05 Jul 2018 08:45:51 -0500, My 2 Cents wrote:

On 7/2/2018 5:34 AM, BurfordTJustice wrote:
Australian supermarkets work to prevent "bag rage" as plastics ban takes
effect

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's biggest supermarket chains are scrambling to
combat "bag rage" as frustrated shoppers vent their anger over the removal
of single-use plastic bags.

One man put his hands around a supermarket worker's throat, the West
Australian newspaper reported, while grocery stores are putting on more
staff to help customers get used to the change.

The removal of single-use plastics is part of a national push to reduce
waste. As of July 1, major retailers in all but two Australian states will
be fined if they supply single-use plastic bags. National supermarket chain
Coles, owned by Wesfarmers, on Sunday removed single-use plastic bags from
its stores, shortly after rival Woolworths banned the bags on June 20.

Consumer complaints forced Woolworths to backflip on charging customers 15
Australian cents (11 U.S. cents) for a reusable plastic bag, with the
retailer now offering them free until July 8.

"They just want a little extra help from us to get through the transition,"
said Claire Peters, Woolworths managing director, in an emailed statement.

After seeing the backlash at its rival, Coles said it would open every
checkout lane on Sunday to reduce queue lengths as staff explain the changes
to customers.

"We are taking a proactive step," a Coles spokesperson said in an emailed
statement.

The union that represents Australian shop assistants has launched a public
awareness campaign on the issue.

"While we understand that some customers may be frustrated by this change,
there is absolutely no excuse for abusive or violent behaviour towards
retail staff," said Gerard Dwyer, national secretary of the Shop,
Distributive and Allied Employees' Association, in a statement on the union
website.

The union conducted a survey earlier this week and of 132 members who
responded, 57 said they suffered abuse due to the plastic bag ban.

More than 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the world's oceans each
year, according to United Nations Environment Programme figures.

The U.N. wants to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022 and says more than 60
countries have so far taken steps to ban or reduce plastic consumption.



I don't consider myself to be a tree hugger but when plastics show up
in the wild fish we eat it's not good.
yeah there's a problem,
https://www.treehugger.com/plastic/p...-overview.html
and yeah, plastic in the ecosystem ..
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/...y-environment/

In another thread here it was pointed out that the vast majority of
plastic in the ocean comes from Asia and the 3d world. I doubt any of
them have a recycle truck coming down their dirt road every week.
The problem is plastic is a byproduct of all of the petroleum we burn
and there is no shortage of new plastic.
I still think the best solution is to burn our used plastic in a waste
to energy incinerator. If we want to sort our "trash" it should be
sorted into "metal", "stuff that burns" and "everything else" (that
would go to the land fill).
We want to spend money building various types of new power plants, why
not waste to energy plants. The fuel is free.

On 7/5/2018 1:35 PM, Wayne Boatwright wrote:


I once questioned a local disposal company about how they process
plastic bags and that type of plastic that bags are made from, as
opposed to types of plastics that are reusable in manufacturing. At
least in their case they are incinerated in a sealed furnace that
emits no polutants into the atmosphere.


The last 47 years of my working career was in a form of plastics. Back
many years to town we were in had an incinerator for trash. They liked
out plastic because it burned hot and they could mix it in with soggy
loads to get them burnt better. Back then no one was thinking about
using it to generate electricity. Pound of polystyrene contains 18,000
BTU of energy, roughly 7 pounds equal a gallon of oil. Better to use it
than bury it or fill the ocean with it.