Solid Thinking

NZ Shops and Supermarket are to charge for plastic bags. This has been done by Pak’n'Save since about 10 years ago although they never said anything about saving the planet. I was always under the assumption that they are only trying to help pushing the prices down.

Now suddenly all other supermarkets (FoodStuff ones) and The Warehouse decided to charge 10c per plastic bag, with the loud gong sound of “saving the planet”. Would you believe that?

First of all, let’s consider this NZ Herald Article by Daniel McCaffrey which talks about the reality of how much plastic bags are becoming the hazard to the environment.

Before anyone gets too excited about plastic bags they should look at the research done by William Rathje of Stanford University. He drilled into American landfills and discovered that the main content was paper (40 per cent). Plastic bags did not figure. Disposable nappies were 2 per cent.

Right. I’ve never heard any gongs about the dispossable nappies…

Second, allegedly plastic bags cost The Warehouse around $1M per year, with the average of 3c per plastic bags (that’s around 33 million plastic bags). With the baseline math skills I possess, they are charging us 3x of the plastic bag cost. That would go into…errr…after taking $1M for cost, leaving them with $2N profit? It suddenly makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Of course on top of that they pledged that any surplus will be donated to the charities. I assume it is because everyone is honest and good-hearted? Call me cynical for all I care.

I don’t mind paying 10c for plastic bags if it is a business practice. What I mind is being blindfolded with environmental carrot waived in front of my nose.

As I have said when I first heard the news: saving the planet?

<sarcasm>Yeah right!</sarcasm>