Chip

Plastic bottles backed by MPs


Bottle neck: More than 15,000 injuries each year involve glass.
Welsh MPs want to call time on glass bottles in bars and pubs.
They have signed a motion in the House of Commons calling for glass bottles to be replaced by safer multi-layered plastic ones.

They are backing research by the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff, which shows that thousands of fight injuries could be prevented if clubs served drink in plastic bottles.

The man behind the study, plastic surgeon Jon Shepherd, said the MPs' support was another step in the campaign to see Cardiff bars with a high-risk of violence selling only plastic bottles, perhaps within two years.

A total of 18 Welsh MPs have signed the motion put forward by Julie Morgan, Labour MP for Cardiff North.

City centres are littered with glass, particularly bottles, strewn everywhere - anyone looking for a scrap has a weapon readily available

Professor Jon Shepherd

She has tabled a Commons motion calling for improved safety standards, including the marking of pint and half-pint glasses to indicate they conform to manufacturing standards for toughened glass.

It also calls for the police to ban the carrying of glasses and glass bottles in public places and for parts of Cardiff city centre to be glass-free areas.

The MPs said injuries from glasses often involved lasting physical and psychological scarring in young people and a burden to the taxpayer through criminal injury compensation awards.

In October, Prof Shepherd attended a crime reduction conference in Newport which heard that happy hours, alcopops, growing affluence and the British obsession with drunkenness all played a part in soaring rates of binge drinking among young people.


Trouble study: Prof Shepherd found link between clubs and injuries

He said a switch to glass would not affect a drink's taste, would allow it to be chilled for longer and the bottles could be recycled just as easily as glass.

He said: "I hope it will accelerate the move towards plastic bottles in nightclubs because there no doubt that that would prevent many thousands of injuries from assaults where glasses and bottles are used as weapons.

"City centres are littered with glass, particularly bottles, strewn everywhere. Anyone looking for a scrap has a weapon readily available.

"This is one item in our campaign to reduce glass-related injury. The next step is local action in Cardiff where plastic bottles is one of the ways forward."

He said the city's crime reduction partnership had already adopted the idea of requiring clubs which showed an increased rate of violence in which bottles are used as weapons to sell bottled alcohol in plastic containers.

"How it will be implemented has yet to be sorted out," he said.

"In two years, we want to see the big clubs where the risk is high moving entirely to plastic bottles."

Bloody hell, what will they think of next.These people are in another world.

Chip.

V45DSM

And rightly so.

ajm

Once again, they ignore the root cause - the scum.

gljam

I've got to say this is one of the few '*****' laws that i actually agree with, i've seen a couple of people get glassed and it ain't pretty

ajm

I suppose they should ban anything sharp in a pub then should they? Ban porcelain urinals and cocktail sticks

Or how about they hand out decent sentences to offenders so they might actually be deterred from doing it in the first place?

Ian Griffiths

What complete nonsense.

The drinking experience marred because the goodys are too under-resourced, backward thinking or plain stupid to address real problems.

chaos.

Imagine drinking stella out of a plastic bottle


cha0s

Madjay

i agree proper sentences should be handed out rather than getting rid of glass bottles, come on theres always gonna be something else out there for them to use, u cant put bubble rap around everything

V45DSM

If you're pissed or heff'ed up on goofballs do you give a flying **** about the concequences?

Tiggs

there should be more glass in pubs..in fact knives should be given out on the door- let the retards kill themselves.

ajm

Do you think the unavailability of glass bottles will stop them from harming someone? If they are going to harm someone then they are going to harm them, you can't stop them. If the deterrent doesn't work then at least with decent sentences they will be weeded out from the populous and hopefully long enough to prevent them from procreating anymore of their kind.

V45DSM

Well it will stop them harming someone with a glass bottle. Fist or Pint - I know which one I'd rather be bopped with.

gljam

[zipping up flame suit very tightly]

As it was said above someone under the influence of alcohol is not going to be thinking of the consequences of his actions as clearly as if he was sober. Therefore while i agree totally that there should be tougher sentencing for these crimes there will always be people who will ignore the rules and continue regardless.
I believe the idea is to remove a potentially lethal weapon from someones hands, very well they may grab something else but how often do you see knives, baseball bats, feather dusters freely to hand at your local bar or night club?

Ultimately if someone wants to have a fight, either spur of the moment or some deep, social inadequecy that has been building up over god knows long, surely it is better for them to lash out with their fists and cause bruising or a bloody nose because they can't find anything else to hit you with or to reach round, grab a glass bottle and stick it in someones face.
I know it's all nanny state but it could stop someones life being ruined
Just a thought.

gljam

beaten to it by v45

[Edited by gljam - 12/21/2003 10:02:21 PM]

ajm

So you are a drugged up scally going out to get mashed and have a fight... would you think "oh... no glass bottles, fisticuffs it is then"? or would you take a knife with you instead? Or use a pint glass or an ashtray?

Banning things is always an easy cop out in my opinion, it takes the focus away from the real problem. Oooh those irresponsible publicans for serving drinks in bottles, how DARE drinks manufacturers use glass bottles blah blah

As a society we should be putting all our efforts into punishing the guilty, not inconveniencing the innocent.

Edited to add: off downstairs to get my self a nice cold Tiger beer in a BOTTLE!

[Edited by ajm - 12/21/2003 10:03:42 PM]

V45DSM

Also, have you seen the energy that's wasted in producing all those bottles?

gljam

well i'm off to crack open my plastic bottle of panda cola

ajm

I hope no panda's were harmed in the making!

gljam

LOL

Gordo

It's a comfort to see our politicians focused on the key issues.....

homer lawtey

My mate is the landlord of my local, and I've helped him throw some fights out of the pub and onto the streets. The amount of times he's been threatened with bottles and glasses is scary. I've even witnessed him having a bottle of Bud smashed over his head, it isn't pretty. He now uses the toughened pint glasses that just shatter into tiny pieces, so it takes a risk away from him and his staff, let alone anyone else in the pub.

As any one who works for a living will know, the world revolves around risk assessment, so no brewery or landlord will be able to justify using glass bottles if there is a plastic version available.

Agreed though, that more action has to be taken against the scum who are willing to use a bottle, but rational thinking doesn't work when p1ssed. Take the weapons away from them, and let people use their fists.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Can you really see the Becks brewery in Germany making becks in plastic bottles just because the Welsh can't control themselves????? or Smirnoff or Bacardi or the other girly alcopop bottled drinks.

Fatman

IMHO all sharp edges should be made illegal. Ditto objects with pointy corners.

And bright lights. Shiny things are distracting to some, to all surfaces should be dull. Preferably those surfaces should not be brightly coloured either.

Ratman

I like this report...

Scotland’s largest town, Paisley, has become the first in the UK to introduce plastic tumblers and bottles in all its pubs and clubs. The number of serious injuries caused by glass attacks has almost halved. The clubs that have switched to plastic include Flares.

Glasgow Evening Times 20.10.2003


So, all the glass bottles and glasses have been removed, and the number of glass attacks have only been halved?!! Glaswegians bringing their own weapons with them?

Ratman
MY98 Wagon

Hobo_Jojo

how does a plastic bottle inconviniece you?

Luke

Most beeers sold in bottles dont deserv to even be sold in a plastic bag...its all made in some krap bewerery in England. So dont get cool about it........ You are drinking ****.

iDLe*

I've been glassed in the face and it was pretty horrible. If the bar I was in had no bottles or glass then I would have got a shiner at worst, as it was I nearly died and the retard who did walked away from the Crown Court with all charges dropped.

Getting rid of potentially lethal weapons must be a good idea?

Freak

having had a glass bottle chucked at me when mixing, and it hitting my head then falling amashing on the turntable that was playing i can say its not nice.

Some of the clubs i work in have glass bottles for some products already

ive seen a few people bottled in the past- not pleasant- anything that eliminates that cant be a bad thing

Chip

I think this is being brought in because the English thugs cant control themselves when they come to Cardiff to play their football matches as they havent got their own stadium to play in

Stella Artois isnt. Its made in a brewery in Magor, Gwent, Wales.


Chip

[Edited by Chip - 12/22/2003 1:24:11 PM]

TelBoy

Totally agree.