Sorry, I'm non-the wiser. Must be having a slow-brain day today.
At the risk of embarrassing myself, the point of the tax was to stop people using as many plastic bags. That person said they were going to do that as they were annoyed at the prospect of paying 5p for every bag they received so job done.
The only humour I'm maybe seeing is if the person thought they were being defiant and getting one over on the government when instead they were being compliant and doing exactly what was wanted of them. Is that it?
Yes that's about the size of it. To be fair I didn't read the thread or post first hand but I am imagining it was one of those indignant, spitting feathers posts. The sort of thing where someone says 'Grrrr I am not paying their blankety blank bag tax, I'll take my own b***dy bag and see how they like that. Take that government.'
Yes that's about the size of it. To be fair I didn't read the thread or post first hand but I am imagining it was one of those indignant, spitting feathers posts. The sort of thing where someone says 'Grrrr I am not paying their blankety blank bag tax, I'll take my own b***dy bag and see how they like that. Take that government.'
Yes that's about the size of it. To be fair I didn't read the thread or post first hand but I am imagining it was one of those indignant, spitting feathers posts. The sort of thing where someone says 'Grrrr I am not paying their blankety blank bag tax, I'll take my own b***dy bag and see how they like that. Take that government.'
I did post something along those lines myself in another forum, but it was intended as a joke.
If nothing else, it demonstrates why I never had a career as a comedian.
Irony in this. Disposabl cups were created and marketed for two reasons: convenience to the busy consumer on the go and to save water and energy, because dishwashing is one of those wasteful useages (relatively speaking, especially at sanitizing temperatures.) Now the emphasis is on reducing solid waste instead of saving water disposable cups are a bad practice.
Yes that's about the size of it. To be fair I didn't read the thread or post first hand but I am imagining it was one of those indignant, spitting feathers posts. The sort of thing where someone says 'Grrrr I am not paying their blankety blank bag tax, I'll take my own b***dy bag and see how they like that. Take that government.'
Irony in this. Disposabl cups were created and marketed for two reasons: convenience to the busy consumer on the go and to save water and energy, because dishwashing is one of those wasteful useages (relatively speaking, especially at sanitizing temperatures.) Now the emphasis is on reducing solid waste instead of saving water disposable cups are a bad practice.
There never is a perfect solution.
Until you posted that about water and energy I was wondering if there was some solution on the lines of a deposit on proper cups. So you return your cup to any branch of {insert coffee chain here} and get your deposit back. [/B] However they stopped doing it for pop bottles so presumably there was something amiss.
In which case you wonder why people aren't calling for them to be used instead of a 5p tax.
Tax is more punitive than using biodegradable and sticking the cost on the drink. It's how Government stamps it's authority to keep the little people in place.
Tax is more punitive than using biodegradable and sticking the cost on the drink. It's how Government stamps it's authority to keep the little people in place.
Except no tax is being collected, so presuambly the little people are free to roam.
It was brilliant!
The fury of some posters over the 5p charge was extraordinary, the post that made me laugh the most was from a very angry poster who said they were going to avoid paying 5p by taking their own bag!
No I missed that. Feel quite sad now. However googling is quite good way of finding old DS threads. It works like a charm if one has a reasonable recall of the thread title or have a few good key words. Revisiting some of the loonier threads is a great way to spend a wet winter Sunday afternoon.
Tax is more punitive than using biodegradable and sticking the cost on the drink. It's how Government stamps it's authority to keep the little people in place.
Afaik the government doesn't receive the 5p cost of a carrier bag so I doubt it would from any tax introduced on coffee cups. The problem with a tax on coffee cups is it is unlikely to reduce their use for practical reasons. Anyway the fact is it would be better if these coffee cups weren't going to landfill so one wonders how much more is a biodegradeable coffee cup than the ones they currently use.
A can of beer (500ml) costs £1 to drink at home. A pint of bitter in a pub is usually less than £2-50 around here.
A cup of coffee costs pennies to make at home, even with ground coffee. A cup of coffee in Starbucks, Costa etc. is at least a couple of quid a cup.
And now they are talking about a coffee tax.
Hmm. Beer versus coffee.
I once saw a breakdown of how much it actually costs to serve you a cup of coffee and it was quite astounding the extra costs in it. I don't know how pubs make a profit on a £3 pint.
What would be better is a refundable deposit of 10p that could make a bit of cash for kids picking up all the empty cans and cups found littering up our countryside that the lazy few believe should be picked up by the local council at our expense.
What would be better is a refundable deposit of 10p that could make a bit of cash for kids picking up all the empty cans and cups found littering up our countryside that the lazy few believe should be picked up by the local council at our expense.
That still doesn't address the issue of them not being recyclable
I've thought of a third option for you. Pay the measly 5p. From what you've written it doesn't sound like you buy takeaway coffee regularly, so it's hardly going to break the bank.
There's no need to get quite so personal, thank you very much.
The money isn't the issue. It's a drop in the ocean compared to the over-inflated price of the rather mediocre coffee served by the big take-away chains. My preference is tea when I'm out and about.
The point I was making is how the levy would work. Plastic carrier bags were seen as 'free', and so like all resources in seemingly abundant supply it's human nature to abuse the situation. Charging for their use changed people's behaviour for the better, and that's a good thing.
However, not all carrier bags need to be charged for: Those used for (and I quote the Government's own guidelines here) "unwrapped food for animal or human consumption - eg chips, or food in containers that aren’t secure enough to prevent leakage during handling" LINK, I would argue that any take-away beverage would fall under the same "leakage during handling" category. So why the discussion about charges when they don't apply to food?
Human behaviour is not changed quite so simply as a 5p minimum charge.
The flimsy supermarket bags were perfect for a wide range of home uses, so people just buy them on a roll instead and probably use more than they did before.
5p tax on cardboard cups would do nothing whatsoever other than raise money.
Comments
Yes that's about the size of it. To be fair I didn't read the thread or post first hand but I am imagining it was one of those indignant, spitting feathers posts. The sort of thing where someone says 'Grrrr I am not paying their blankety blank bag tax, I'll take my own b***dy bag and see how they like that. Take that government.'
I prefer Karls view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQuiwp3wnH0
I did post something along those lines myself in another forum, but it was intended as a joke.
If nothing else, it demonstrates why I never had a career as a comedian.
that was funny
however on the internet there are quite a lot of unintended self-parodies, so it's hard to tell a comedian from a knob
There never is a perfect solution.
Thanks for setting me right.
And you!
So much comic potential (and knob gags) there that I hardly know where to start!
Until you posted that about water and energy I was wondering if there was some solution on the lines of a deposit on proper cups. So you return your cup to any branch of {insert coffee chain here} and get your deposit back. [/B] However they stopped doing it for pop bottles so presumably there was something amiss.
Except no tax is being collected, so presuambly the little people are free to roam.
And I bet he/she voted for Brexit.:(
Thanks for the link. You should also check out the one where someone says they steal shopping trolleys
A can of beer (500ml) costs £1 to drink at home. A pint of bitter in a pub is usually less than £2-50 around here.
A cup of coffee costs pennies to make at home, even with ground coffee. A cup of coffee in Starbucks, Costa etc. is at least a couple of quid a cup.
And now they are talking about a coffee tax.
Hmm. Beer versus coffee.
Afaik the government doesn't receive the 5p cost of a carrier bag so I doubt it would from any tax introduced on coffee cups. The problem with a tax on coffee cups is it is unlikely to reduce their use for practical reasons. Anyway the fact is it would be better if these coffee cups weren't going to landfill so one wonders how much more is a biodegradeable coffee cup than the ones they currently use.
I once saw a breakdown of how much it actually costs to serve you a cup of coffee and it was quite astounding the extra costs in it. I don't know how pubs make a profit on a £3 pint.
That still doesn't address the issue of them not being recyclable
The money isn't the issue. It's a drop in the ocean compared to the over-inflated price of the rather mediocre coffee served by the big take-away chains. My preference is tea when I'm out and about.
The point I was making is how the levy would work. Plastic carrier bags were seen as 'free', and so like all resources in seemingly abundant supply it's human nature to abuse the situation. Charging for their use changed people's behaviour for the better, and that's a good thing.
However, not all carrier bags need to be charged for: Those used for (and I quote the Government's own guidelines here) "unwrapped food for animal or human consumption - eg chips, or food in containers that aren’t secure enough to prevent leakage during handling" LINK, I would argue that any take-away beverage would fall under the same "leakage during handling" category. So why the discussion about charges when they don't apply to food?
The flimsy supermarket bags were perfect for a wide range of home uses, so people just buy them on a roll instead and probably use more than they did before.
5p tax on cardboard cups would do nothing whatsoever other than raise money.