Missing the Mark?

You have to stand back and admire the latest PR coup from M&S. Their announcement about reducing the use of plastic bags for food secured huge publicity yesterday, and again today as the PM has endorsed their leadership position. It's fantastic PR, similar to their coup last year, when a few days after they announced their great financial figures they launched Plan A.

The real question though, is aside from the PR - is there any substance to the plastic bag ban? Don't get me wrong - great PR is worth it's weight in gold - it's part of how corporate reputations are made and retained. But, it has to have substance and has to stand up to scrutiny. And I don't think the plastic bag ban does - in fact I think it's a dangerous distraction from the real issue.

What we need to understand in the UK is that environmental responsibility - whether by individuals or corporations is a complex and multi-layered series of actions or abstentions. Carrier bags are a great invention - they are light, but have immense carrying capacity - so they score high on public convenience. Alternatives to plastic bags, such as the reinforced paper bags introduced in Ireland, are reputed to have a higher carbon footprint than the now demonised plastic bag. Additionally, they are not as flexible so you need more bags to carry the same volume of food.

Unsurprisingly, none of this complexity - and there's more once transportation is factored in - gets reported. It seems to me that unless and until we can have a more subtle and even sophisticated debate about the environmental impacts of our convenience laden lifestyles, PR stunts will continue to lead and shape our green behaviour. And that is immensely dangerous, for corporations who may find their packaging the focus of the next trophy target, and for the public who are lulled into a false sense of having 'done their bit'.

Does this mean we should wait till we know everything before we do anything? Of course not, but doing incomplete and / or inappropriate things may, in the long term be worse for the environment. What is does mean is that we should reject simplistic solutions that make us feel better, but are ultimately meaningless.