Plastic carrier bags are under attack for their part in our increasing litter problem. But printed carrier bags are a powerful marketing tool. Used correctly, printed plastic bags can boost individual businesses and still be acceptable environmentally.
Recurring advertising
Businesses want to promote themselves and one way of doing it is having the name and logo of the business printed on carrier bags which will be used again and again. They are a long-lived form of recurring advertising, a potential sale-maker every time they are seen. And, apart from the initial investment, they do not cost a company money every time they are used. The sort of packaging companies use is vitally important. Eye-catching, unique designs make a purchase seem special.Plastic carrier bags with that indefinable something drive home the message.
Pollution problem
But plastic carrier bags have been getting a very bad press recently, with calls for them to be banned. They are said to be a major pollution problem, both in landfill and at sea. But a total ban on carrier bags is not the answer. It will not address the problem effectively. The issue needs to be tackled on a number of fronts.
The obvious first method is recycling. Most big supermarkets in the UK – Morrisons, Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and the Co-operative – now have recycling banks inside their stores. Wholesale plastic carrier bags can be recycled in this way. If you have shopping delivered to your home, some supermarkets will let you give the bags to the driver for recycling.
People are the problem
The problem of plastic bag litter is not caused by the plastic bags, it’s caused by people. A plastic bag does not decide to turn itself into litter in a roadside hedge. People throw it there. People must be encouraged to re-use their plastic bagsagain and again. If the problem of plastic bags being thrown away is to be addressed then retailers and the government have to work together to send a consistent message to the public, re-use your bags. There has to be a major shift away from the use it and throw it culture.
Ireland has brought in a plastic tax, which recognises that people will always use plastic bags occasionally. Wholesale plastic carrier bags are not going to go away. In Ireland a small fee is charged for each re-usable plastic bag at the checkout counter. It produced a drop in the use of plastic bags by 93.5 per cent. That is a fall from 328 bags per person each year to 21 bags. Customers are encouraged to buy the re-usable bags and keep using them, rather than buying new ones. Giving away the re-usable bags free only encourages more consumption. Finally, increasingly plastic bags are being made from biodegradable plastic, which comes from renewable crops such as corn and does not contain any polyethylene.
AUTHOR BIO
Idania is enthusiastic about improving the environment we live in. She writes regularly on environmental issues and the ongoing wholesale plastic carrier bags issue for a range of websites and blogs. Common sense is her watchword. To get more information on economy wholesale plastic carrier bags she recommends a web search of plastic production companies.
