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About LinkBackswe've used carrier bags as bin bags for years.
i suppose this means our supply will be drying up
we've used carrier bags as bin bags for years.
i suppose this means our supply will be drying up
When I was in Belgium with my family they kept the cardboard boxes the stuff came in and people normally used that to carry their shopping to their car, great IMO as it's reusing the stuff before the need for plastic bagsOriginally Posted by TiG
I generally use mine after shopping as bin bags and also to carry stuff I dont want spreading into my bag, like my lunch at work etc (obviously not the same bag!)
As am I.
They could, after all, just stop supplying them at all. But no, instead they charge. And I'd be a lot more impressed if stores and manufacturers actually addressed the often ludicrous packaging they put their own products in.
But I suppose moves like this do change my shopping habits ..... it changes where I choose to shop. Do I care about the 5p? Nope. If it was laying on the pavement, I wouldn't bother to pick it up. Do I care about a cynical charge? Oh, yeah. I'll take my business elsewhere. And if enough people did that, how long would their wonderful, caring attitude about the environment last if it threatens their bottom line? Quite so.
I believe one of the major Tesco stores in Northampton has stopping supplying the typical bags at all. You have to buy, bags for life, usually the fair trade ones (which is nice I think).
I might be wrong as I was only in there for a minute, but by a certain date they were not going to have them at all.
Does it really help recycling? I don't know.
I know a lot of people use those plastic bags as rubbish bags. So now that they charge for it, I go and buy those black big plastic bags instead.
I dont mind them charging, but the money they charge should go towards a good cause
Why oh why oh why can we not make biodegradable bags that are strong enough for supermarket bags? If that were the case then we wouldn't have to worry.
In recent years I've been using "bags for life" some of which don't last but atleast some stores will change that bag if the one I have is naff. I usually keep one in the car. Secondly I reuse the plastic bags that I do pick up as rubbish bin bags, which always used to result in 5 kitchen draws full of the damn things as others did the same. There are 3 adults in the house and we now chuck out less than one Tesco bag of rubbish per week - the rest is recycling. Infact more goes out in recycling than rubbish each week. (does help to have a composter).
I generally try and reuse stuff although I won't go as far as my mum who will carefully peel off sellotape from Christmas wrapping paper so she can re-use it!
"Reality is what it is, not what you want it to be." Frank Zappa. ----------- "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." Huang Po.----------- "A drowsy line of wasted time bathes my open mind", - Ride.
I'm for the 5p, it makes you have to at least think about how many bags you're using slightly and I believe supermarkets unlike the government will look to using those 5p's towards looking cheaper than the competition.
Skii does have a good point though. The amount of packaging on some items makes the fact you're then charged for a bag a joke. There's far more waste from what's in the bag than the bag itself, take Jaffa-Muffins for example: http://www.mrikasu.com/blog/archives/21
Oh and well done Tesco for having bags strong enough that you can use the space rather than leaving it half-empty because it's going to split. Yes you can still split them but compared to some places' bags they're a lot more resilient.
1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!!!
OK, put that down to bad grammar.
What I was saying is that not using any carrier bag, is far more environmentally friendly than a paper of biodegradable one.
Using data is the knocking on 20 years old doesn't help anyone.
Ok, I take it all back. What a rubbish [pun?] website.
Government tells shops to use less plastic bags. Shops charge 1p (WH Smith) 5p (M&S) etc etc, in order to 'discourage' the use of 'one use' bags.As am I.
They could, after all, just stop supplying them at all. But no, instead they charge. And I'd be a lot more impressed if stores and manufacturers actually addressed the often ludicrous packaging they put their own products in.
But I suppose moves like this do change my shopping habits ..... it changes where I choose to shop. Do I care about the 5p? Nope. If it was laying on the pavement, I wouldn't bother to pick it up. Do I care about a cynical charge? Oh, yeah. I'll take my business elsewhere.And if enough people did that, how long would their wonderful, caring attitude about the environment last if it threatens their bottom line? Quite so.
A cynical ploy to make more money? Yes, it probably is.
If they stopped supplying the bags at all however, then many customers would be caught short without a bag. Surely this would result in far more annoyance, with many customers choosing to shop elsewhere on principle. As it stands, charging even just a penny seems to discourage many people from having a bag. Reduced costs to the business with the added bonus of appearing to be 'green'. The loss of business from the minority, and it is a tiny minority, who choose to shop elsewhere is probably more than offset by the reduced costs in providing so many bags.
From a business perspective, this small charge that annoys a minority of customers (at least to the point where they choose to shop elsewhere) does help to offset the considerable costs of providing one use carrier bags that many people don't want and/or need anyway.
Meanwhile, self righteous 'green' customers can often be seen loading their hessien bags into the back of 4x4's
I do mind them charging, if that's their reason for doing it. If I want to contribute to a "good cause", I'll pick my own not have a supermarket manager do it for me.
If their reason if environmental, then it strikes me as sheer hypocrisy to start charging for bags without making serious attempts at reducing the packaging their own products come in. For instance, in my youth, if you bought tomatoes, you bought loose product, and you either put them in a paper bag at the grocers, or you took your own string bag for that kind of thing. Oh, and by the way, you walked to the grocers, and probably two or three times a week if not every day, bought enough to cover you for the duration until the next trip.
What you didn't do was drive to the supermarket, with the environmental impact of all those extra miles. So you got the exercise from the walking, saved the cost of the petrol (and the pollution it causes) and you didn't get you half dozen tomatoes plonked in a plastic tray and covered with yet more plastic.
But now, to a very large extent, we don't even have those small grocers, butchers, bakers, etc, and why not? Yup, supermarkets.
So when they are directly responsible for so much of the changes in our society that have led to a good percentage of our current plastics usage, forgive me for being a bit cynical when they suddenly develop a "conscience" and want to cut down on plastic consumption ..... by charging. Sorry, but I don't believe a word of it for a single nanosecond.
I don't (unfortunately) expect supermarkets to close operations and open thousands of small grocers, but if they actually seriously worked at reducing their own plastics and packaging usage, I'd be a lot less cynical about suddenly charging for bags.
Supermarkets almost uniquely have the ability to change packaging standards, and to do it in a very short space of time, IF they had the will. Ever seen a supermarket delivery bay, or a warehouse? Noticed the amount of stuff that's wrapped in large plastic sheets? Bottle of fizzy drink, for example. Sure, it's convenient, but it could be done with cardboard that will rot down. If Tesco, for instance, told their suppliers that starting in 6 months time, NO product will be accepted into any stores or warehouses wrapped in that film, do you suppose suppliers would find another way of packaging their product, or accept the loss of Tesco?
And if Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrisons all did it, would suppliers accept the loss of all of them? Or would they change their packaging.
But how much of this do supermarkets do? Do they start to ONLY sell produce loose and in paper bags, or do they continue to use plastic shells and shrinkwrap? Yes, quite so.
Charging for plastic bags in, in my opinion, directly and solely intended to do two things. One, generate a bit more revenue. Two, give them a PR move .... look at us, we're so environmentally conscious that we're discouraging plastic ..... while still using vast mountains of it ourselves.
Nah, don't believe it. It's hypocrisy, in my view. And that is why I'll avoid shops that do it.
PS. I do have biodegradeable bags, I do take my own bags with me and I do avoid plastic bags wherever possible. I also use small local butchers, bakers and grocers whenever I can. Where I live, my choice is negligible .... or non-existent. But I spend a fair bit of time away and it's in a village location. So I do, where possible, adopt the '60s style of living, and walk to the village (avoiding the Tesco a few miles away) and buy from small, local businesses. And apart from the benefits of walking, by and large, the quality of the produce is FAR better.
Skii (04-09-2008),steve threlfall (04-09-2008)
You know what also discourages people from using plastic bags? A shop assistant actaully asking you if you need a bag, especially if they are standing there with your one item and the reciept handing it to you. Makes you stop and think that no, actually, you don't need a bag. Nine times out of ten when someone asks this I say no as I often have a bag with me already. And it always helps when they say it in a slightly annoyed way that makes you feel like you are personally destroying the planet and the shops business by asking for a bag
hopefully it'll mean less carrier bags blowing into our fields and woodland, it's amazing how far thesedamn things travel
1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!!!
Now that I fully agree with.You know what also discourages people from using plastic bags? A shop assistant actaully asking you if you need a bag, especially if they are standing there with your one item and the reciept handing it to you. Makes you stop and think that no, actually, you don't need a bag. Nine times out of ten when someone asks this I say no as I often have a bag with me already. And it always helps when they say it in a slightly annoyed way that makes you feel like you are personally destroying the planet and the shops business by asking for a bag
Some supermarkets (Waitrose, for instance, or at least my local one) seem to no longer just be putting a pile of bags out for customers to help themselves, and instead, asking if you need a bag. That happened to me yesterday, and I did need a bag. I had several items, including a couple of bottles of (very cold) milk, and as I'd popped into Waitrose with a colleague on the way home from a meeting, I wasn't in my car, hadn't intended to get any shopping and didn't have bags with me.
I avoid plastic bags if possible, but I just don't trust the motives of those charging for them.
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