Why can’t we have fast bio-degradable plastic bags. We were promised them decades ago.

Sideways from Marn Fersn to the delicious Pwue Goward, NSW MP. Last Friday, she was heard (on ABC radio in Victoria no less) berating the NSW Minister for not having a policy on plastic supermarket bags. The reporter challenged her to enunciate the NSW Opposition’s policy.

“Oh we don’t have one. But we don’t have to, the Government should have a policy on this and should have advocated it [at the meeting with Pete]. Our job is to ENCOURAGE the Government.”

Now this I thought was a rather neat sidestep. But it may also be (at last) a contribution to developing a non-macho politics, IMHO. Could it be that under Ms Goward, an Opposition might prefer to be constructive, to encourage and massage a flailing Government? To ease it’s thought-burden. To come up with bright suggestions….? She didn’t, but it sounded as if she jolly well wants to.

Go Pwue!

Jim Bendfeldt has the most obvious solution.

Primary industries Minister, Ian MacDonald recently announced that farmers will soon be able to grow ‘legal’ hemp for oil seed and other uses. He also said that the ’system could pave the way for new industries’, see: http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/200804/s2211576.htm?tab=latest

Hemp makes an excellent paper that unlike the paper from wood pulp can be recycled many times over. Hemp paper is also very strong, having been used in the manufacture of bank notes in many countries.

Hemp fibre can also be used to make very strong yarns (hemp was used for rope for centuries) and a very tough linen-like fabric.

My suggestion is that Australia start manufacturing its own bags from hemp fabric and hemp paper.

Shopping bags made of Hemp fabric could replace the present ‘green bags’ and would last for years and be fully biodegradable.

Likewise supermarket bags made of hemp paper would be stronger than the present plastic ones, could be re-used by shoppers many times over, and when they finally reach the end of their life could be re-pulped to make 2nd generation hemp paper.

Are there any enterprising farmers and manufacturers around?

What if you don’t buy newspapers? I reckon a daily newspaper would do far more environmental damage than a nearly weightless plastic bag every second day.

I cannot look at a Sydney Morning Herald without wincing at the thought of the other 211,990 to 355,750 (Audit Bureau of Circulation) copies trundling around on the backs of truck and in aeroplanes every single day!

And it’s filled with utter crap about obscure pop groups, plugs for poncy restaurants, twaddle about third rate art galleries, inane film reviews, imported car guides, syndicated crap about overseas travel destinations you’d not visit even as a hostage, and mountains of classified ads that could just as easily go on-line.

Except I recently saw that computers are responsible for about 40% of the energy consumed by office equipment in the United States.

http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:vEyGXwNyPIMJ:www.greencampus.harvard.edu/cerp/documents/brochure_small.pdf+energy+consumed+by+computers&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au

Everyone wants ’something done’ about climate change, but few are really willing to pay more or consume less - meanwhile the clamour about climate change is nothing compared to the public pressure about rising fuel prices.

People they ain’t no good.
I think its well understood
You can see it everywhere you look
People just ain’t no good.

I feel a certain compulsion to counter this by saying something ’sunny’. But I can’t think of anything.

Just ban the bloody things. What harm could possibly come of it?

McClelland hasn’t done much wrong, bearing in mind that a lot of what he has been dealing with had (and has) bipartisan support. Much of the A-G’s portfolio is process rather than policy and his big ticket items, like a Charter of Rights are still on the distant horizon. As for Debus, my sources tell me that he has been a very unhappy camper and has been talking about resigning from the Ministry altogether.

Swan still doesn’t look like he’s in command. His stocks are not high in some important quarters. Latham’s comments about Gillard scanning the press gallery when Swan’s on his feet in question time are on the money.

And even more people who use them to get rid of their kitchen garbage who would consider ouyr grandparents’ practice of wrapping up kirchen rubbish in newspaers irksome. Not hat I have any sympathy for them.

What if you don’t buy newspapers? I reckon a daily newspaper would do far more environmental damage than a nearly weightless plastic bag every second day. It wouldn’t surprise me if the just the fuel used to deliver the paper was greater than that to create the bag.
Perhaps there should be subsidy to get everyone to put in an ‘insinkerator’ or whatever they are called. This would get rid of most of the smelly stuff. A subsidized garbage compactor in every house would compress the rest down to a very small size thus requiring fewer bags.

Give Pete a break - if you don’t have a bundle of money to wave around getting the states to reach agreement is like herding cats.

The hardware chain Bunnings confirmed it had reduced bag usage by 99 per cent by imposing a charge, and was moving to an outright ban.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/bottle-inquiry-no-plastic-bag-deal/2008/04/17/1208025380966.html

What to do? What to do? So, hard….

There’s a few people who should be very nrevous.

Home owners, motorists, wage-earning employees, small business operators, self-funded retirees….

Peter

With drongos like him apparently in charge, I don’t hold out high hopes for real action on climate change to ensue.

But Marn Fersn is an eminent doyen of the Federal Labor Party. Wasn’t he under Keating and Hawke, too? Clearly, one of Rudd’s most experienced team players. As opposed, say, to Peter Garrett and other “fresh new talent”.

Andrew says:

See how well Penny Wong goes selling the merits of higher fuel and electricty prices before you beat up too much on Peter Garrett for not being able to sell a plastic bag fee.

How does “stagflation” sound to you? Once that sets in big-time, then it will be Midnight Oil meets The Whitlams in a grizzly re-run of the seventies nostalgia craze.

They’re probably attaching the electrodes to the bolts in Jim Cairns’s and Rex Connor’s necks already. “It’s alive! It’s alive!”

And he said the Govt has “committed $800m to solar”. I think this is was a clanger. They (along with the Liberals) have committed $450m to coal via the LETD, but nowhere near this amount for solar (only the rebate for panels is in place).

He really didn’t seem to know what he was talking about. As if emissions trading in 2012 will have any short bearing on solar uptake, R&D and commercialisation . . .

With drongos like him apparently in charge, I don’t hold out high hopes for real action on climate change to ensue.

LOL