SHOPPING BAGS

I think I might be getting a tad obsessed with this issue but yesterday a spokesperson from Sainsbury's featured on the BBC Breakfast Business programme. He was there to announce some plastic bag news and to accuse the government of jumping on the plastic bag bandwagon to win votes. He had lots of good points and made them for five minutes in front of a full screen rendering of the Sainsbury's logo on one of their bags. Let's see what would that exposure cost on the commercial TV channels? I have smoke coming out of my ears about this.

The government may well be seizing an opportunity to gain the green vote by banning bags or taxing bags but at least they are not exploiting the issue as a marketing exercise. Its not that I'm hugely impressed by the way the government has dealt with the plastic bag issue, in a late-responsive rather than a trail-blazing way but I actually think that the government does have a genuine interest in decreasing the use of plastic bags. They have a landfill crisis to deal with, our carbon footprints to consider, emissions targets, the Kyoto Protocol etc. Sainsbury's just have to sell us stuff and the more their name appears in front of our eyes the more they will sell.
They gave away "free" jute bags recently. Sweet little house printed in one corner along with the web site address of their Home Insurance division. That is a gift alright - a gift to them because you are walking down the street doing their advertising for them. I would believe that they cared about the environment if they cut down on packaging in their stores across the board not on a few eye-catching offers and if they gave their customers bags that didn't turn them into walking billboards. And in the interest of fairness I have to say that M&S and Tesco's are just as likely to come up with something to steal Sainsbury's thunder.
I print CARRYABAG on all my bags because its my company name and I chose it because it is what I want you all to remember to do.
So do it. For yourself, those you love, the countryside and the planet.
Then once we have the place cleaned up we can sort out some other issues.
love and peace
Sally
x