People still buying bags when shopping

SINGLE-USE is the key here. People are now buying multiple ‘bags for life’ every time they shop (because places like Tesco often no longer sell the single-use thin ones), which wouldn’t fall under this statistic. It’s not quite the win that your quote would suggest.

I'm much the same

I try to only buy things to replace things now if possible and try nit to buy too much tat

How do you feel about the environmental impact?

Me too 😉

I always have a fold up bag with me but sometimes I buy more than expected and need to buy a bag. If I'm having a planned trip to a food selling establishment I take extra bags. I don't drive though so I feel that the environmental impact of buying a bag once every few weeks is cancelled out.

@Ohgollymolly I find this "cheap shops like B+M and The Range" a strange concept. To me they are just a shop. A normal shop selling normal things.
If I want to buy a new washing up bowl, new curtains and new quilt cover - where am I meant to buy them?
They are the shops that sell them - and (to me) at normal prices.
(also those items I would use until the literally fall apart - I have had the same curtains for almost 25 years. They are faded and thin now so I need new ones)

How do you feel about all the fast fashion outlets? Primark etc, full of mass produced rubbish.

Then the cheap shops like b&m, the range, home bargains etc…. Endless plastic rubbish that’ll end up in land fill.

The plastic bags at the end of the journey are the thing that the gov has us worrying about /taxed for, but we’re allowed to fill them with plastic tat and it’s okay!

Because, honestly? When there’s alllll these shops full of mass produced rubbish from China (b&m, home bargains, the range etc etc) that’ll be in landfill by the end of the year. Then I’ll bloody well buy a paper bag if I need one! Only place I’ve been recently that had plastic was JD and I reckon the chavs would be furious if those bags werecl changed to paper! (How would they get their books to school?!).

I order a lot online as our local city centre is full of povvo shops, lots of homeless druggies & then immigrants from a hotel lurk about all day. It doesn’t feel safe. All my online orders come in plastic bags, the items are individually wrapped & the mailing bag. So it makes no difference.

Supermarkets aren’t selling the thin single use bags anymore. They’re now selling bag for life style, and people are buying lots of them. If that’s how they want to spend their money that’s one issue, but they seem to forget that we are supposed to be trying to save the planet by creating less plastic :-( it takes years to go. Filling the world with plastic makes me very sad.

OK late to thread.
Yes I buy a bag if I need one....this is not 10 per week.
It's when I forget
Yes I had one in my handbag....then I used it. And It didn't go back for at least a week/month/5months.
Yes I had some in my car....then I used them.

Sometimes you just have to pop in on your way somewhere.

What I really like are the paper bags clothes shops use now.
What I object to is paying for a paper bag, or a compostable bag when the bag charge is meant to be for plastic.

Once I have the bags I reuse them.....why shouldn't I use a carrier bag for rubbish (I have 25 in my house collected over last 2 years) instead of buying a new bin bag ?

@IloveAslan why did you say I must experience a different type of rain to rest of the UK if you don't actually live in the UK?
By the way I said "shopping mall" as a figure of speech. Depending on where I am shopping this may be an inside shopping centre, outside one or a "high street" (which is outside). Most places I shop are actually outside - where it rains 😂
Primark must know their bags are crap because if you buy lots they always double them up 😂

I don't live in the UK, so no, I'm not shopping at Primark or Waterstones! The bags here are reasonably sturdy - after all they need to be able to withstand heavy groceries, and most of the other stores use similar bags. If the bags you get can rip so easily then they need to use stronger bags! I've yet to have a bag fall apart due to rain. Having said that I don't use them often as I carry a bag with me most times I go out and always have a small backpack with me.

If you are walking around a large shopping mall you are not exposed to the elements - malls are usually covered surely?

Incidentally, I just walked through a supermarket car park. Everyone I saw going in, or out, was carrying their own bags. It's astonishing that the UK are still using plastic bags.

There have been documented cases in the USA of meat carried in reusable bags, and then the bags transferring bacteria to fresh vegetables and people becoming sick from.later eating the fresh food. Some people may worry about that, and not want to bother washing their bags between uses. Reusing bags to carry food can raise a hygiene issue--not an insurmountable one, but one which some may not want to deal with.

Yes fair enough

@suburburban most of the time I do. I actually have a waterproof shopping trolley ("granny trolley" style) that I use a lot.
It's just annoying really that some shops will provide a bag if needed - but that bag isn't actually fit for purpose.
I'd rather pay for a decent quality plastic bag (that will be used many times over) than have a paper bag that falls apart before I have left the shopping centre.
I would like to see better recycling facilities for the plastic bags though.

Respectfully, what does it have to do with you whether people take bags or buy them? Mind your own.

You had me at the double negative ‘Why do people still not come shopping without bags?’

If they don’t come shopping without a bag, they have a bag?!

I agree with you though but most people need to buy them occasionally. Buying ten a week is nuts!

You could take another bag out with you like a canvas bag, big supermarket bag or fold up one and put the paper bag inside

You either need to get a life or an education to qualify you in something useful or a new career.
It was a huge shift in consumerism when supermarkets stopped handing out free plastic bags to 66 million people every single day.
It was not popular, but it was successful.
And for some reason the UK could not switch to paper carrier bags like the US? Why was that?
Apologies, but you sound like one of those clueless Just Stop Oil muppets, who are not really sure what they're fighting for or how to balance it with the real world or what changes can be brought in or how to get people on board.
You just whinge and criticise and navel gaze and not have any real answers. No game plan for how the world could change. Just bleating and whinging and having temper tantrums because the world does not work like you think it should. Stamp, stamp, stamp. Huff, huff, huff.

Just got back from m&s and realised I bought eight bags. Was a spontaneous shop but their bags are paper. There's no way I'd have ever thought stepping over the threshold 'I have no bags with me'. I live in the country and I drive about 5 mins on a motorway to get to the big ega store where I needed to collect dinner, I hope nobody judged me for buying them! ( I'm joking I don't actually care if they did )

Well we do take the big reusable things for the big shop, but the thinner ones? I use them for things and run out of them, like passing on clothes etc. so I do buy more as they are useful. Also many people have adhd and will easily forget to bring them.

@Auburngal Im with you. I have bought only about 5 in 10+ years. I take a fold up reusable one with me almost everywhere I go. And bigger ones if Im likely to end up needing a larger one. So easy to do and so much less waste involved.
Im shocked so many on this thread think its fine not to bother. Yes there is an eco cost to the reusable ones too but Ive reused mine over and over again and will continue to do so. Plus they are much nicer to use than a plastic bag.

I agree, this rant is utterly pointless

@IloveAslan really - you've never had clothes from Primark get wet in the paper bag when it's pouring with rain and then the bag eventually falling apart? Or a book from Waterstones get wet through the bag?
You must be lucky. The rain recently has been incredibly heavy (flooding in some places). A Primark paper bag does not survive that. To be honest the Primark bags are fairly easy to the rip anyway. Attempting to get down the aisle of a crowded bus or through a crowd often ends up with the bag just getting knocked against and then it rips.
(Waterstones bags are a bit tougher - but unfortunately not waterproof).
Oh and just because I have access to public transport doesn't mean I won't be carrying the bags for hours. Walking around a large shopping mall from shop to shop takes a long time !

You must have different rain in the UK to anyone else then. I don't drive and frequently carry things in a bag - including paper - without getting them unduly wet, and I daresay I am walking further to my home than you are to a bus or train stop (we aren't fortunate enough to have public transport in my town).

This thread has been an eye opener to me as I really thought banning single use plastic bags would be a worldwide thing - it's beginning to look as though the countries doing this are very much in the minority. Btw everyone moaned here when it was first mentioned, but we very soon adapted and the majority of people (in my town anyway) bring their own bags. If they don't the only options are a (strong) paper bag, a (strong) fabric bag, or buy one of the jute bags which supermarkets generally have for sale. If you are in another type of shop it's a paper bag or nothing.