Tesco’s plastic is wrapping up: No more bags

Market Street has seen its fair share of demonstrations, leafleters and buskers, yet on Friday all three came together. A keen green group decided that St Andrews uses far too […]

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Market Street has seen its fair share of demonstrations, leafleters and buskers, yet on Friday all three came together. A keen green group decided that St Andrews uses far too many plastic bags than we should and that’s just a tad more than accurate. In order to get their point across and dissuade students and townsfolk alike from using so much plastic, the group set up a 40ft banner (ingeniously made out of the little blighters) outside Tesco proclaiming “no more plastic bags.”

The spokesman of the group, Maurice Bryson, said “the protest was influenced by Ireland’s decision to tax plastic bags last year. It pretty much eliminated plastic bags from use there, where I’m from.” Letters are also being written by the group to the managers of Tesco and Sainsbury to try and get them to cut down on the amount of plastic, especially in St Andrews.

One of the demonstrators, Natasha Gartside, said, “The number of students I pass every day with new plastic bags in their hands is just ridiculous. And what’s more, it’s wholly unnecessary.  It comes down to a matter of convenience. Tesco provide us with endless plastic bags, which are supposedly ‘free’. But I’ve got news for ya: they’re not; they’re factored into the price of the food you buy. The way I look at it, it could be win win win – if there were no more plastic bags, we’d all save money, and everyone’s memories would be buzzier because you’d have to remember to always have a bag on you. And the one great thing about plastic: it weighs almost nothing. So there are no excuses!”

Whether standing outside the supermarket with a huge banner, singing songs where the lyrics consisted of “plastic bags gotta go” will make much difference to how we view recycling, we’re not sure. It is the start of making a difference though; after all, every little helps.