plastic shopping bags

[solar]

Sainsburys are charging 5p per plastic bag from next Monday with proceeds going to charity. Should dramatically cut the number used.

[Mustard]

Any company in England selling goods with over 250 employees is going to be doing the same. It's not exclusive to Sainsbury's marketing department. It's already happened in Scotland and Wales.

[yeknomyeknom]

And Northern Ireland. It works really well.

[Jacqui5254]

I hope the 5p carrier bags are of a better quality than the current free ones. Better for re-use.

[solar]

Agreed. The free ones are not strong enough, especially for a second use. I reuse mine to clear up after the dog.

You can buy a 'bag for life' which is much stronger and the shop will replace it when it wears out.

[Bic Basher]

I went up to Tesco last week and they had the 5p bags already (not charging yet) and they're stronger.

[TheCat]

Will an extra 50p on a ?150 quid shop really see use cut down that much?

[ed_pete]

Seems to have worked in Wales:

Is the charge working?

The single use carrier bag charge was introduced to reduce the number of single use bags used.

In July 2012, the Welsh Government released a brief summary covering 13 retailers which showed reductions of 35 ? 96% since the launch of the carrier bag charge. This information, available below, is broken down by retail sector.

Food retail - between 96% and 70% reductions;

Fashion - between 75% and 68% reductions;

Home improvement - 95% reduction;

Food service - up to 45% reduction;

Telecommunications - 85% reduction.

http://www.carrierbagchargewales.gov.uk/progress/chargeworking/?lang=en

[rabbitears]

TheCat Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Will an extra 50p on a ?150 quid shop really see

> use cut down that much?

You wouldnt have thought so but its like the tax disc changes - people spend thousands extra to save a small amount extra in tax.

[uncleglen]

Are people not aware that plastic carriers are made from oil and are therefore a waste of a finite resource? And have people not been using their own bags and bags for life for at least 15 years? And...what on Earth did people use before? And am I the only person who feels absolutely mortified if I forget my own reusable bag?

[JimiSayo]

I am beyond mortified if I forget my bags. I have 3 bags for life (two went walkies) in my boot. It took me a while to remember to take them into the shop, but if I forgot, I'd toss my shopping into the trolley and fill up the bags in the boot. It's now second nature to grab them ... unless I kid myself I'm going in for a pint of milk and walk out with a trolley full ...

uncleglen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Are people not aware that plastic carriers are

> made from oil and are therefore a waste of a

> finite resource? And have people not been using

> their own bags and bags for life for at least 15

> years? And...what on Earth did people use before?

> And am I the only person who feels absolutely

> mortified if I forget my own reusable bag?

[James Barber]

Hi uncleglen,

sadly people haven't.

This new law should see a dramatic reduction in plastic bag numbers and hopefully save lots of oil from being used for this.

One of the Lib Dem ideas in the former coalition not since undone by the tories.

[Charles Notice]

I was under the impression that most plastic bags came from recycled plastic and old bags.

Cannot see the bulk of bags coming from virgin plastic which is vey expensive.

[James Barber]

Hi Charles,

Are you sure. To have such thin plastic I'd imagine a very consistent polyethylene mix which I didn't realise you could get from recycled plastics.

[Charles Notice]

Pretty sure

From memory Sainsburys had a huge recycling plant up North for just

[Azalea]

solar Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Agreed. The free ones are not strong enough,

> especially for a second use. I reuse mine to clear

> up after the dog.

> You can buy a 'bag for life' which is much

> stronger and the shop will replace it when it

> wears out.

Did you know that you can get free dog poo bags from the libraries?

[James Barber]

Hi Charles,

I think that's for recycling plastic bags handed into them - you know the bins they have at the exit of the local Sainsbury's store on Dog Kennel Hill.

[rodneybewes]

Re the bags for life - there was a bloke on the radio the other day from an environmental group saying that when you looked at the energy cost that went into bags for life you would have to use them over a 100 times to recoup it compared to charging a couple of pence for every plastic carrier bag and putting that money into collection and recycling. I have to say I've never used any of my bags for life over 100 times... I keep losing them.

[Jacqui5254]

Whilst I have loads of the 40p fortified bags from Sainsbury's, I still prefer some of the free bags as well as they are good to reuse for tons of other things.

Does it matter that, as the use of free plastic carrier bags decline, the purchase of plastic bin liners increases?

[monica]

Its taken this long to start charging for the bags, SNUB who gave out free shopper bags in East Dulwich in 2008, to help reduce the use of plastic, are now happy to finally see this happen in 2015.

It is also nice to see the original SNUB bags, still being used in Dulwich, makes me tingle all over. After 7 years, the bags still look great.

[bodsier]

Jacqui5254 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Whilst I have loads of the 40p fortified bags from

> Sainsbury's, I still prefer some of the free bags

> as well as they are good to reuse for tons of

> other things.

>

> Does it matter that, as the use of free plastic

> carrier bags decline, the purchase of plastic bin

> liners increases?

I agree I use them for lining bins, outside over for wrapping lunches in case of leakage. The list Is endless, really miss them when they are not around..... I figured I will have to just not line bins And wash them very regularly. I am sure this will increase the amount of plastic bought. Still haven't managed to purchase compost bag liners from sainsburys as they Are ALWAYS sold OUT.... The same will undoubtedly be true in relation to less 'environmental' bags. Particularly from ?1 shops..... I don't bu newspapers anymore would would be useful for a lot of these tasks, so it though it will be more work, I am prepared to do it. Somehow I believe as I usually don't take plastic bags for smaller purchased and usually use my bag or panniers, for larger shops, supermarkets force me to use bags because of all the excess packaging in the products. I think they should start there then we can use boxes from the supermarket or our own bags more easily? I always want to shed all the baggage at the cashpoint just to show the excess involved, and how much space the shopping needs. Might be good to start with the source rather than the outcome?

[LadyNorwood]

Tesco delivery driver told me that they have been allocated an extra few minutes per delivery since everything has to be unpacked individually from the crates......

[DulwichFox]

Whether plastics bags are free or 5-10p they are still going to be around...

People paying ?30-40 or more for shopping are not going to worry about 5-10p added to their bill.

Unless every time they are told they will be paying for the bags they will not even be aware of it..

I have used my Tesco Canvas Natural Green Bag 'bags for life' for about 5 years or more.

They are now very worn but as far as I know they are no longer available so wont be replaced..

I buy the Strong Green plastic bags at the Co-op which are 10p and re-usable time and time again.

DulwichFox

[Charles Notice]

They are going to charge 5np for each bag. When they deduct cost and overheads how much will be given to what ever charity they can make up.

[reetpetite]

LadyNorwood Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Tesco delivery driver told me that they have been

> allocated an extra few minutes per delivery since

> everything has to be unpacked individually from

> the crates......

Tesco gives you the choice of your shopping delivered in bags or not..I had mine in bags a few times untill I had a back log ..use to annoy me that they would put one or two items in each bag..so I opted for 'no bags'.