to really resent paying for plastic bags for food

[mumsfretter]

I am probably BU.

I just think that M&S charging for plastic bags for food (not clothes) is utterly ridiculous. I usually use my bag for life but occasionally need to run in for some items on my way home from somewhere. On these occasions I need a plastic bag (which I would use again) and resent paying for it. If I was buying a pair of socks on the other side of the store I would get a free one but for food I don't. And don't get me started on how much packaging they use themselves, so it's hardly a green thing.

I realise there are more important things to get annoyed about but AIBU to resent paying for plastic bags.

fluffy - its true about the US and the paper bags as they dont need handles as they generally are only walking/pushing the trolley as far as the car boot, er trunk - not carrying their shopping anywhere iyswim.

I agree that the same companies use far too much plastic in packaging. I would love it if that could be looked at - even if they just had to put info on it saying how long it would take to degrade, if ever. Food packaging is ridiculously wasteful, and I don't want to buy a ready meal which will be cooked and eaten in half an hour if the packaging will still be here in 100 years time!

YABU. We have to pay for bags here (Belgium) in most shops. A new law a few years ago banned supermarkets from giving away bags for free. They all now charges. So, we use re-usable plastic bags, bags for life or plastic crates. If I'm just buying a few things on my lunchbreak for example, I'll use a pocke bag thingy that I always have shoved in my handbag. It's a strong fabric bag that zips up into a little pouch. They sell them everywhere here, and it's smaller than my wallet, so there's really no excuse for using/paying for a plastic bag.

I just feel it's wrong that a company that uses ridiculous amounts of packaging makes a stand by charging for plastic bags.

If you think I am unreasonable then I would hope you don't give or receive kids party bags normally full of little nits of plastic

I don't quite understand your problem OP, tbh. You've said it's wrong to have too much packaging around a product (and no one has disagreed) and yet resent having to pay for a plastic bag if you haven't one on you.

Now you're saying that anyone who agrees with paying for a plastic bag had better be an all out environmentalist - never purchasing plasticy things for their kids - other wise their view point is invalid

Other wise known as throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Thank you uoYekor :)

I've always wondered

I don't carry a handbag because I'm not allowed one with my work clothes, so my bags for life live in the boot of my car.

Every few weeks though I deliberately don't take my bags for life to the supermarket, because I've run out of kitchen bin liners and need some supermarket flimsy carriers to do the same job. Otherwise I'd be buying bin liner bags (which aren't generally biodegradable) and putting those into landfill instead of the supermarket carriers. If the local council would sort out their bloody useless recycling policy then I might have less stuff that I'm forced to throw away, but that's a different topic.

Otherwise I'd be buying bin liner bags (which aren't generally biodegradable)
why not just chose the ones that are?

I don't carry a handbag. So I don't have a bag to put other bags in. I don't buy bags for life/jute bags

I reuse the carrier bags I get from supermarkets as bin bags.

If I had to pay for carrier bags I would make the effort to remember / buy bags for life etc. But then I'd have to buy bin liners for my rubbish - so I'm not convinced I'm saving the planet whatever I do!

You asked if when I "buy a nice product from a nice shop do you accept the bag and freebie crap they put in there?" LOL! I don't know the last time I could afford to buy "a nice product" anywhere other than Asda or the local charity shops. In fact my ecobag is probably my most recent indulgent purchase - I got it over a year ago in my local charity shop and use it every day.

If you occasionally need to pop into a shop on your way home, then you know it might happen and it's so easy to carry a rolled up bag in your handbag.

Mousy - I've never seen biodegradable bin liners on sale, although admittedly I don't spend hours staring at the bin liner aisle. But why pay, when I can get biodegradable ones from the supermarket for free?

We live close to the wales boarder our local spar recently started charging a penny per bag it took me and dp about a week to get into the habbit of taking fabric bags woth us (they easily fit in pockets too) it's not hard. YABU.

Most of the supermarkets sell bio-degradeable/compostable bags, our council have recebtly bought out a whole new recycling scheme which requires us to have compostable bags for food waste I havn't had a problem finding them so far.

Here in Malta clothes shops use paper bags to put the goods into. For food shopping (including fruit and veg stalls) you can pay for plastic/fabric bags, use a box, if there are any about, or take your own bags. It's been like this for years now, we're all used to it. I find it odd coming back to the UK and been given loads of cheap, non-reusable (because they are so flimsy) bags to put my shopping into, it's such a waste.

halloweenyqueeny

"soooooo go to your handbag now, put some bags in it, then next time you need to make an unplanned purchase they are already there.. not rocket science is it?"

In fairness I didn't even have a handbag with me just a phone, and keys etc in my 6cm by 6cm across the shoulder carrier that goes under my coat. I didn't even have a handbag with me.

Also to those saying put something in the boot. I DO! I never use plastic bags on my weekly shop. This was a one off and I will reuse the bags.

In Wales we pay for all bags regardless of what it's for. I've got hundreds of the damn things now, as we sometimes forget them or dh decides to do the weekly shop on the spur of the moment on the way home from work.

My DH made me laugh the other day..
We were in the supermarket and instead of being made to pay 2p for a plastic bag, he decided to go and fork out two quid for a jute carrier. It was what he said though - "Theres no way I'm paying for plastic bags, lets get a jute one instead...they last ages..."

Little did he know I have 15 jute shopping bags under the bed which I always forget to take

YANBU.

The majority of waste in my bin is from excessive packaging which M&S through their suppliers have huge control over. I think the plastic bags are small fry in comparison.

Supermarkets in Wales have reported a 90% reduction in plastic carrier bag use since the charge was introduced. Personally I have noticed a massive reduction in the amount of carrier bags as litter that I see out and about. I thought the charge was crazy at first but now am 100% behind it.

(a) For kitchen bins, use the charity bags that are pushed through your letter boxes.

(b) For supermarket shopping, accept the carrier bags while they are free. Why should we pay to walk about the streets advertsiing, via the carrier bags, any supermarket.

"The majority of waste in my bin is from excessive packaging which M&S through their suppliers have huge control over. I think the plastic bags are small fry in comparison"

actually, the packaging around perishable food reduces food waste considerably, and food waste has a bigger environmental impact from cradle to grave than packaging waste, so it makes environmental sense for supermarkets to continue to package individual products

plus, most supermarkets HAVE invisibly reduced their package waste but most consumers wont notice, the thicknesses etc of the plastics/wrappings have been reduced as much as they can be without causing food waste to increase, but you wouldn't notice the difference just by looking.

And to those who mentioned this, if you are using as many bags for your bins as you are getting in for shopping then your personal level of food waste is probably too much

food waste is a huge problem, even bigger than packaging waste, so a certain amt of food packaging is a lesser evil. Unlike free carrier bags

and a lot of packaging can be re-used by you, we don't have tupperware we have reused jars and pots etc.

reducing and reusing is far far far better than recycling

YABU OP. We're talking about a 5p or 10p charge for a bag you can re use. I live in Wales and I think it's bloody fantastic we don't get free bags. As Welsh says upthread, it has reduced usage by 90%. Is it inconvenient and are we all indignant? No and No.

You'd be amazed how much of a habit it is to leave the house and take handbags, keys and scrunched up carrier/ folded shopper as pure habit.

And the argument that you should only pay for clothes bag and not food bags holds no water. It was supermarket users that used the most by a country mile. You know, you'd buy two items and use a carrier, or some would even buy one item and use a carrier... in Wales you see so many people arriving at supermarkets with various jute bags, Bags for Life, laundry bags, etc. It's a way of life and it really is saving the environment.

I've got no patience for people thinking it's an affront to cough up 5p or carry things home in your arms. It's really not a hardship.

Incidentally- all the money goes to charity, usually environmental or local community charities, so it's not as if the shops are doing it to rake in profit.

It's 5p, or 10p... since Wales introduced the scheme I have suddenly remembered to put bags in my car boot (though often forget to take them into the shop, though there's no law that expects you to bag items at the till), I have a few in my handbag, and if I am out without a bag or my car, I pay the 5p.

I DO wish manufacturers would be forced to use less packaging though. It doesn't always seem to be the service user who pays most and is inconvenienced most. (Our new bin collection takes far too much time out of my day and I'm constantly GRRRRRRowling about the complexity of the system, but that's another thread).

Yes it's 5p for a normal bag and usually 10p for a Bag for Life.

It's really not a problem OP, but it has done so much good. I think we are a very pampered society. Paying for a bag is nothing.