5P SCOTTISH PLASTIC BAG TAX

I feel I must comment on the recent news that if you want a plastic bag in Scotland when you are shopping you are going to require to contribute 5p for each one to charity.

On the face of it this is being done with the best of intentions.

It is after all designed to reduce the amount of plastic bags used and therefore reduce landfill and improve the environment, and few if anyone could argue with that (and I am certainly not).

Firstly I should state that I very rarely take plastic bags in any shop having been brought up by parents who lived through the Second World War, when everything was recycled, and therefore I nearly always take my own canvas ones.

However I am strongly and idealogically against the 5p charge for plastic bags.

I am sure the fact that the 5p charge will go to charity was designed to remove the label of it being a tax.  However the definition of charity according to Google is ‘the voluntary giving of help, typically money, to those in need’. Given that the 5p charge will be mandatory and therefore not voluntary it is a tax.

 the 5p charge will be mandatory and therefore not voluntary it is a tax

I am currently having to existing on benefits because I am ill. I frequently do not even have enough money to allow me to buy food (if it wasn’t for family and friends on many cases I would go hungry and freeze in the winter). I frequently get off transport a stop early to save 20p or a similar small amount. The World has gone completely bonkers as now getting plastic bags whilst shopping will be considered living it up (as is going to a public lavatory is when I am out and about, as you are often charged 20p or 30p entry)!

Thirdly the same thing could be achieved without charging by…

1. Ensuring all bags are made from biodegradable plastic (yes it is possible nowadays).
2. Making it a rule that bags should not be offered, they must be requested.
3. A specified percentage reduction in shopping cost if the shopper brings their own bags or boxes to take their shopping home, perhaps varied according to the number of brought bags used. 
4. In the 1970s I can recall going to the supermarket where discarded cardboard boxes in which the articles on the shelves had been delivered were made available to customers for carrying their shopping. They also had recycled paper bags available (although these were not much use on wet days which are all too frequent in Scotland, particularly in the west). 
5. Education so that people know why they should reduce their use of plastic bags.

Education not compulsion

Education not compulsion is the best way in most things. After all why educate if you are going to compel? Choosing is no longer required.

I'm all for people reusing more sustainable bags as I do it myself, but my view is people who do should be handed incentives, rather than bringing punishment financial or otherwise to those who do not.