Reusable shopping bags cheap and should last for years

"The issue with reusable shopping bags is to change the consumer habit and have the shopping bags always with you." Walter Breustedt

I totally disagree with the article “Plastic bag ban could hit NZ’s poorest” (HBToday January 8).

The Minister for the Environment published in the impact assessment of the ban: “Consumers to pay upfront for new multi-use shopping bags could disproportionately affect low income consumers.”

What a nonsense! If we continue producing waste which will end up in landfills, the councils have to find new areas for extending landfills and maintenance costs will increase too. The consequence will end in higher annual rates. These costs will be an impact on the “poor” the hardest, because they are annual costs.

We have in our household several cotton shopping bags, which we used for several years. They are sold for $1 each (e.g. at The Warehouse). How hard is this for a low income household to spend $3 for three shopping bags usable for at least three years?

Many shop at Pak’nSave, which was selling until December the plastic bags for 10 cents each. If customers had to buy three yellow plastic bags per week, they spend $15.60 per year — most of this amount will now be saved.

The issue with reusable shopping bags is to change the consumer habit and have the shopping bags always with you.

It will take some time. The supermarkets already remind their consumers in the carparks “bring your bag”. The Ministry for the Environment should spend more money on consumer information about waste reduction instead of reports with such misleading statements. Walter Breustedt

Havelock North

Living with autism

I’m writing this letter in regards to the lovely lady and her autistic son. Hang in there you are doing well — from a lot of experience myself my heart goes out to you. I have an autistic son who is 32 years old now and will always live with me, his level is of a little child.

Life can be very trying but we love them anyway. Some people out there have been fantastic over the years and others not so much.

I find the older generation to be ruder at the best of times. Let the neighbour call the police as they are really good and quite understanding in my very few moments with them anyway.

Loud noises like firecrackers, cars, motorbikes even noises you wouldn’t believe can effect an autistic child. I bought my son ear muffs to help block out some of the noises, and that settles him quite well and he has games to keep him happy.

I was in the supermarket a year ago with my son and an older man came up to me and said, “They should put people down like that there’s no place for them here”, and shook his head.

I politely told him he was commenting on my son who I loved very much and I got our groceries and left. We have to put up with a lot of rude people that don’t care or try to understand.

The younger generation are a lot more understanding and usually they just smile.

Good luck and hang in there, and I hope that you get all the help you need. Maybe your neighbour should pitch in and buy you a little farm, or maybe the Lotto outfit should as a gesture of kindness.

S. Keil Hastings

Te Mata Peak track

I am from the UK, revisiting Hawke’s Bay. About this time last year I enjoyed walking on your beautifully constructed track up Te Mata Peak, using this valuable public amenity along with thousands of other people.

This year I visited the summit by car. I observed, without binoculars, some rather ugly damage to the lower part of the walking track. Myself and other visitors assumed this to be from vandalism, which we have always thought rare in New Zealand.

I hope this damage can be repaired soon and that the culprits will be brought to court.

Whilst I sympathise with the residents of Hawke’s Bay (we have our share of this kind of thing at home) I did not notice any damage to the tracks leading from the carpark on the other side, so can only hope this is an isolated incident.

Martin Cowley

UK

Water capacity

Simply telling residents to “conserve water” won’t do — it is last century’s thinking. (HBT, January 5 )

Clearly we don’t have enough capacity and Napier City Council needs to start drilling new bores.

With the rapid growth in summer tourism coupled with recent population growth in Napier it’s no wonder the city’s water supplies can’t cope.

How are we to conserve water at the same time as clearing the pipes?

Chlorine is a powerful oxidising agent. Since NCC started chlorinating our water supplies two years ago many households have ongoing problems of discoloured water with excessive manganese stripped out of the pipes.

The council’s advice has been to run the tap for 20 minutes until the water clears.

Napier City Council could solve the problem by simply removing the chlorine disinfectant from the pipe network. We don’t need permanent chlorination. In the last five years tests for E.coli have demonstrated no need for chlorination, especially as E. coli results “were on the edge of detection” according to Napier City Council staff — in other words no proof of any contamination.

Napier nearly ran out of water when two cruise ships visited on December 6, 2017, filling up with fresh water during a drought while the new reservoir in Taradale was out of operation because the roof leaked.

This should have been a warning to NCC to stop procrastinating and get its house in order. Start drilling.

Pauline Doyle Spokeswoman, Guardians of the Aquifer