Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags - Save The ...

play a role in carrier bag use and therefore required attention. Their inclusion was notinfluenced by current use or market share and this has been made more explicit withinthe report. Due to their low use it was also difficult to find accurate samples. The samplesused were selected based on the similarity of their capacity to current supermarketcarrier bags and therefore represent the most accurate reference possible. Thisinformation has also been added to the report.Comment 2.1.3 - Other bagsThere is no mention of produce / deli bags; we are not sure if they are worthy ofmention? A consequence of not mentioning them could lead to “supermarket carrierbags” being an all encompassing definition. Obviously the very thin gauge bags are usedto avoid cross contamination from meat, cheese, and fish – the HDPE type bag isinfinitely less weight than other options. They are also used to pack fresh fruit to avoidthe need to have only pre-packed products in trays and flow-wraps or blister cartons. InIreland for their carrier bag tax they differentiated these by means of dimensions of thebag. In a report meant to be used as a basis of policymaking, it would be very useful tomake explicit that this study is not relevant for other types of bags.The report has been amended to clarify the difference between carrier bags andproduce/deli bags.E.2.2 Chapter 2 Goal definitionComment 2.2.1 – Critical review process (section 2.2)Please clarify the term integrated in the last sentence of 2.2; I think it is better to simplystate the chairman reviewed and commented the goal and scope.The report has been amended to include this change.E.2.3 Chapter 3 ScopeComment 2.3.1 - Reference flow (section 3.2)The reference flow refers to the situation 4 years ago, which we understand is due to thelong time needed for the study. It would be good to make a generic comment describingto what extend this is still representative for now.A generic comment has been added to state that although bag compositions havechanged in the recent years, the reference flows for common bag types will not havesignificantly changed. Bag use may have reduced since the reference period but this isdue to bag reuse rather than changes in other consumer habits (e.g. buying less). Acomment has also been added to mention the large development in biopolymers whichcould have resulted in the most significant change.Comment 2.3.2 - Items per bag (Table 3.1)We do not understand how the data for this table was collected. The text and annex Bshow a very detailed study on HDP and LDPE bag (which is really unique in itself), buthow the number of items in a paper or starch based bag was determined is unclear. Thisis of course important as this is the basis for comparison.107 Environment Agency Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags