Universal Chat Thread

[lp0 on fire]

Hose pipe ban, yay. I mean, our store uses a hose pipe to water outside plants we sell. No one's told me what we're doing about that when the ban goes live. Ha ha....ha. Reminds me of the banning or whatever of plastic straws, and still don't know if that's gone through or not. I still a small plastic box full of them.

I'm not surprised by the hose pipe ban. It's as expected with hot weather in the UK as putting salt on the roads is when they think snow might be coming but most of the time it never does.
As for banning plastic straws, I'm glad it's happening. The more ways we can do without plastic the better. I still hope for the day the US puts out a nationwide charge on all plastic bags at stores like the UK has.

..only issue is that many people use those plastic bags to pick up their dogs poop, paper bags are shit at this use. Ive seen Lower Middle class and below use plastic bags for storage and moving supplies when section 8 fucks them over yet again, for things that are unsuited for paper bags. Among other things, what you are suggesting is just another way companies and the government gets to fuck over those most in need.

I would instead suggest that public funding (and ensure they are under public patents) goes to further research and development in to Biodegradable plastics and the bacteria and enzymes that have been found that breaks down plastics.

Or just launch all trash to the sun...

[Moonface]

A charge for a plastic bag in the UK is 5p. I also have not heard of dog owners having problems with picking up dog poop because of this, as you can still buy disposable dog poop bags. Also, the idea is that it encourages people to re-use their bags. Instead of constantly getting bags, you just re-use what you already have, so people who are moving would already have bags unless they have a habit of throwing out their bags, and if so, then by all means enforce a bag charge to stop that sort of behaviour.

Stores can also offer bags that are bigger, stronger, and if they break, will replace them for free. It worked wonders in my store, where it would be rare to see someone shopping without their own bags.

Also, charging for bags could be used to fund research into better ways to recycle things. Less bags get used, and we get to fund research into creating better bags for the future. It's a win win.

[lp0 on fire]

A charge for a plastic bag in the UK is 5p. I also have not heard of dog owners having problems with picking up dog poop because of this, as you can still buy disposable dog poop bags. Also, the idea is that it encourages people to re-use their bags. Instead of constantly getting bags, you just re-use what you already have, so people who are moving would already have bags unless they have a habit of throwing out their bags, and if so, then by all means enforce a bag charge to stop that sort of behaviour.

Stores can also offer bags that are bigger, stronger, and if they break, will replace them for free. It worked wonders in my store, where it would be rare to see someone shopping without their own bags.

Also, charging for bags could be used to fund research into better ways to recycle things. Less bags get used, and we get to fund research into creating better bags for the future. It's a win win.

1) US plastic bags barely can survive 1 usage let alone multiple they are so thin and weak
2) Why pay for disposable bags when a) you get it for free b) are reusing
3) Im 1110% sure that the "bag tax/surcharge" will not be covered under WIC, or food stamps thus again penelizing the poor and making it harder for them to get fresh food back to their house (again I have dealt with people in this group and often they don't have cars or it is broken down yet again), If they lack bags its going to be even harder to transport the food via walking or bus.

4) you run in to this paradox:

2008, the UK Environment Agency (UKEA) published a study of resource expenditures for various bags: paper, plastic, canvas, and recycled-polypropylene tote bags. Surprisingly, the authors found that in typical patterns of use and disposal, consumers seeking to minimize pollution and carbon emissions should use plastic grocery bags and then reuse those bags at least once—as trash-can liners or for other secondary tasks. Conventional plastic bags made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE, the plastic sacks found at grocery stores) had the smallest per-use environmental impact of all those tested. Cotton tote bags, by contrast, exhibited the highest and most severe global-warming potential by far since they require more resources to produce and distribute.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...te/498557/

I would do more digging but my internet is so shit I can't even load a sub 50 page pdf <_<

[Moonface]

The reusable bags they offer are plastic. Not the tote bags. They are stronger that normal plastic bags and bigger, and are designed for multiple uses. Again, if they break, you get one for free. Those bags are 10p, twice the cost of a normal plastic bag, but it's 10p once and you essentially have that bag for life. You will never pay to replace it as stores do so for free.

Also, again I have not seen the charge impact those on low income. I came from a town with a lot of elderly folk who don't drive. I never saw them having problems transporting their shopping and none of the elderly in my town came off as being well off. Also, if someone is on food stamps, then let them get bags for free. Either that, or make free bags be paper, which is much easier to recycle than plastic is.

[lp0 on fire]

The reusable bags they offer are plastic. Not the tote bags. They are stronger that normal plastic bags and bigger, and are designed for multiple uses. Again, if they break, you get one for free. Those bags are 10p, twice the cost of a normal plastic bag, but it's 10p once and you essentially have that bag for life. You will never pay to replace it as stores do so for free.

Also, again I have not seen the charge impact those on low income. I came from a town with a lot of elderly folk who don't drive. I never saw them having problems transporting their shopping and none of the elderly in my town came off as being well off. Also, if someone is on food stamps, then let them get bags for free. Either that, or make free bags be paper, which is much easier to recycle than plastic is.

You are comparing two different countries, remember 'Murica doesn't have the social safety nets nor public transit that UK and Europe has, things are also physically spread out way further then

Ive seen the poor desperately search for pennies to pay for food in a house that only got 50 USD or so A week for a family of three two of which were very physically active teens (teens already eat you out of house and home, now add in ones who are in sports inside and out side of school). You might not think 5 or 10 cents (assuming 1:1 conversion rate) is a lot, but to people who live in these conditions, it can mean the difference between some extra food or not, paying rent/utilities or not.

I have seen elderly and disabled who need to walk for miles to get their food home because there are no bus routes/stops (MI and public transit are not really on speaking terms), form their house to the nearest food store(s).

Detroit right now still has over 30k people living in "food deserts", that is any area that is beyond 1 mile form a grocery store (in urban and suburban communities) .

[Moonface]

Fair point. In which case, I wonder why not try to encourage the use of paper bags where reasonable as they can be recycled better than plastic. Also, do what Target does and give a discount on shopping for bringing your own bags. The last one would be awesome for those on low income as their shopping bills would go down.

[lp0 on fire]

Fair point. In which case, I wonder why not try to encourage the use of paper bags where reasonable as they can be recycled better than plastic. Also, do what Target does and give a discount on shopping for bringing your own bags. The last one would be awesome for those on low income as their shopping bills would go down.

Prima Facie that sounds good but the issues I am concern with are 1) US plastic bags as they are now are shit, I find my self double bagging for just 3 or 4 small cans of soup they like to rip if you look at them wrong and 2) Paper bags are larger in size and often (in my experence) harder to hold multiple of them at one time (say public transit or walking) Oh and if its raining a decent amount good luck not getting them to rip.

THe other issue is that Target is more "upscale" and doesn't target (hehe) the communities we are discussing, WalMart and co already offer "low" prices (with razor thin margins), this would honestly only encourage the bean counters to increase the price to make up on the loss form the discount. Target has a larger margin and can afford to take that loss.

I mean yes WalMart can more then afford to take that loss, but given the (post-Sam) Waden's family ruthlessness when it comes to "Give me give me give me more money" we all know they will raise prices to make up for that discount, so its not even a discount.

As far as reuse, its often already reused either as small trash bags, poop bags, storage, or other wise, but given the current states of the bags I am skeptical of resuage for eggs/cans/etc

[Nightingale]

Hose pipe ban, yay. I mean, our store uses a hose pipe to water outside plants we sell. No one's told me what we're doing about that when the ban goes live. Ha ha....ha. Reminds me of the banning or whatever of plastic straws, and still don't know if that's gone through or not. I still a small plastic box full of them.

I'm not surprised by the hose pipe ban. It's as expected with hot weather in the UK as putting salt on the roads is when they think snow might be coming but most of the time it never does.
As for banning plastic straws, I'm glad it's happening. The more ways we can do without plastic the better. I still hope for the day the US puts out a nationwide charge on all plastic bags at stores like the UK has.

Argentina does the plastic bag ban already. It helps.

[lp0 on fire]

Finally got the internet back working <_<

Stupid comcast.

[Moonface]

If I ever get a major internet issue I'll just use my phone as a mobile hotspot since I'm on a contract where I'm not charged for data usage so I can use it without worrying about limits.

[lp0 on fire]

If I ever get a major internet issue I'll just use my phone as a mobile hotspot since I'm on a contract where I'm not charged for data usage so I can use it without worrying about limits.

15 or 20 gig Dataplan with 4 other people... it doesn't work out so good just using mobile.

[Nightingale]

Can I just say that I absolutely hate technology and everything involved?

Half-an-hour or so ago:

Me: Well, this PC came packaged with a weak HDD, but that's no problem, for I have a brand-new SD card.

Me: Now that that's set up, let's move some large files.

Computer: Ooops! There's not enough space in C:/ to move files to H:/.

Me: What's wrong with you? Begrudgingly deletes a bunch of files.

(Half-way thru).

Computer: Ooops! There's not enough space in C:/!

Me: ...

Rinse and repeat file deletion and retries for the next fourty-five minutes.

I hate you, Windows. You are the vein of my existence.

[lp0 on fire]

Can I just say that I absolutely hate technology and everything involved?

Half-an-hour or so ago:

Me: Well, this PC came packaged with a weak HDD, but that's no problem, for I have a brand-new SD card.

Me: Now that that's set up, let's move some large files.

Computer: Ooops! There's not enough space in C to move files to H.

Me: What's wrong with you? Begrudgingly deletes a bunch of files.

(Half-way thru).

Computer: Ooops! There's not enough space in C!

Me: ...

Rinse and repeat file deletion and retries for the next fourty-five minutes.

I hate you, Windows. You are the vein of my existence.

THe song of my people. I really want to get my self back in to Linux, but if I did so I want it to be on a drive separate from my Windows partitions. I don't have the money for an SSD Or HDD right now for that.

But you want stupid:


Can't tell you how many times at my previous job I had that happen to me.

[queenzelda]

Because you know it's windows & they want to make life more difficult for you.. because it's windows. xD Sad but true.

[Nightingale]

That's brilliant