Go Green - Get Seen

Maybe I’m being just a little cynical, but is Tesco’s campaign to cut the use of carrier bags entirely selfless? I am sure that most people are aware that we use far too many plastic carrier bags. These mostly non-biodegradable nasties are clogging up landfill sites, choking wildlife or pumping toxins into the air when incinerated.

According to government figures, we use ten billion carrier bags each year in the UK (http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/localenv/plasticbags/index.htm). Clearly if we are going to stop destroying the planet, we need to do something about it. But what can be done?

In Ireland, a tax has been levied on carrier bags, which has allegedly reduced their use significantly (although the official study will not be published until the end of 2006). That would seem a way to cut use, but would a government in the run-up to an election want to levy a new tax? In the USA, the big polluter in most ways, carrier bags are made from paper and so rot naturally. This seems to me a sensible solution – especially as paper bags are more attractive and durable than their plastic counterparts. However, they are more expensive so who is going to pay for them?

The reusable bag has been encouraged for a few years. Tesco was a leading light in this with its extraordinarily patronising posters which proclaimed, “Save a few pence or save the planet.” That statement has always boiled my blood when I think of how their policy of screwing down suppliers is allegedly driving farmers out of business every day in the UK and worldwide.

Now Tesco has painted itself as the champion of all that is green. If you re-use a carrier bag (or indeed any bag, including it seems golf trolleys) you get a Clubcard point.

This campaign has been launched to meet Tesco’s target of cutting carrier bag use by 25% over 2 years. This means that they aim to stop providing 1 billion bags per year (yes Tesco is responsible for 40% of all carrier bags in the UK). In other words, if we assume that each bag costs them 1 pence, they will save £10 million per year… Of course, some of this will go back in the form of Clubcard points (for those that have Clubcards). However, current policy seems to be to limit points rewarded wherever possible… (Check out http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=255694 for some of the latest stories.)

This money saved could probably pay for their entire current campaign on TV…. So in other words they are getting free advertising and appearing (in the very Machiavellian sense) to be Green.

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