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.

I carry a couple of fold up bags with me in my handbag, but I still prefer to take plastic bags when I'm doing my shopping (if they are free). I use them for all sorts - rubbish, sorting laundry, keeping items separate when packing, when giving items to other people. I just use the fold up bags at places that do charge or when bags aren't available.

I think 5p for a flimsy M&S bag is annoying, especially as the Asda stronger Bags for Life are only about 10p.

I think you can pay for an "upgrade" chattering!

(posh voice) "This is not just a Bag for Life, this is a M and S Bag for Life".

halloweenyqueeny "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"

I totally disagree, the food that is packaged often means people are forced to buy more than they need, this is especially true of fruit veg and herbs. If they got rid of the packaging grouping multiples together people would buy less and therefore waste less.

This is really my point, M&S are really only green when it suits them. I resent the fact that 99% I use a recyclable bag and when I get caught short I am forced to pay to advertise their shop whilst they package to the hilt.

If you don't want to pay to advertise their shop, take a bloody Asda bag with you!

it's been pretty well studied mumsfretter

and you can freeze fresh herbs, which is extra handy because if you add them from frozen you don't even need to chop them you just crumble them into your cooking.

If you're stuggling to use up extra bits england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/ is really good

We've been paying for plastic bags here in Ireland for years. At least M& S plastic bags last a couple of uses. Tesco treat their Irish customers like s**t and their bags fall apart almost before you've left their shops!!!

meal planning also means that stuff that has to be bought in bigger quantities gets used again later that week (e.g.feta, I find a block is more than I need for 1 meal for 2, so when I buy it I always plan two meals that week that'll use it.. )

If you're wasting food then take some responsibility, you're only cutting your nose off despite your face by making out it's nothing to do with you because if you cut your food waste you cut your shopping bill too

Good point Halloweeny. Food wastage is a two way street.

M&S are just barmy. They claim to be green, but they put clothes in carriers even when you have a shopping bag with you. Then they charge for bags in the food hall.

I'm totally as to why nice clean dry clothes that would go in my big cloth bag get a carrier. When ice cream, lasagne and various other messy items don't.

halloweenyqueeny

Thanks for the link. I always try to buy what I need and have reduced our household waste massively in recent years by using old veg for roasted dishes etc.

We've had a plastic bag tax in Ireland for about ten years now. Clothes shops give paper bags, in grocery shops you need to pay for their plastic ones. Hardly anyone goes to the shops without their own bags. It's amazingly how quickly you adjust. Honestly.

I wish people would stop blaming M and S. We all use too many bags and if we take our own we have nothing to complain about. If you forget and you live in Wales (or Ireland- see above), you cough up the eye watering fee of 5 pence or 10 pence and get on with your life.

halloweenyqueeny

Was that last post directed at me? I hope not because I am not stupid and understand how to help stop food waste.

BUT for example you can only buy green beans in double packs (well for the last 6 months) at M&S, they don't freeze and there are only 2 of us in our house. I am finding your posts slightly patronising now.

yeah it is, its a bit feeble TBH to say you have to waste green beans just because one single shop only sells too much for you, there are lots of other shops that sell just enough green beans for two, or you could have them two nights in a row in very different recipes if ya can't shop around

you could also put them in green soup, and freeze that.

It seems silly that there is a distinction between bags for different goods. Are plastic bags for food worse for the environment than plastic bags for clothes?

M&S ABU by not charging for all plastic bags.

halloweenyqueeny

Yes indeed I could eat green beans two nights running (although the size of these would mean 4 nights running and tedious to say the least but you are missing the point.

My point is the supermarkets packaging does not help waste, it means people are forced to over buy. It's not difficult to assume some people will end up binning things.

Please stop using the words 'you' and patronising me because I don't waste food. This should not be personal.

halloweenyqueeny

BTW please read my posts at NO stage have I said that I waste green beans but you have replied saying "you"

Yabu. I've been refusing carrier bags for about 15 years. Shop staff used to look at me as if I had 2 heads and antennae. In m&s I was once told I had to have a bag for security reasons. I had a long debate over that one.

I don't buy plastic toys, I try not to buy over packaged food but I still use way more plastic than I want to.

Can never understand why parents don't care about the world their dcs and their dcs will have to live in

funbagfreddie

I accept that point wholeheartedly. It's the inconsistency that really got me this morning.

Solid bag given free for a pair of socks, nothing for a load of food.

Halloweenyqueeny
"yeah it is, its a bit feeble TBH to say you have to waste green beans just because one single shop only sells too much for you, there are lots of other shops that sell just enough green beans for two,"

Please point me to where i said I waste them.

FunBAgFreddie I think it's because most plastic bags you see fluttering from trees and bushes tend to be supermarket ones rather than ones from clothes shops.

well i waste green beans but only because i used to like them and now i dont.

granted it was only a small handfull but i still did it.

i watched a program recently about the enviromental impact of making the jute type bags it certainly didnt agree that they are green

I tend to take a lot of bags with me when I visit my mother and let her have them. They use them for bin liners and for picking up after the dogs.

She lives in Wales and wont pay for bags

Nobody was saying you waste them OP, but you did complain that M and S sell them in double packs, which is no good for you. So don't buy them!

I buy all my veg frozen, it is frozen when very fresh and you only cook so many portions at a time. I have 2 young DCs who change their mind about veg on a daily basis, so I always have a frozen selection.

If you find so much fault with M and S, go elsewhere, where they sell green beans in different quantities! and don't move to Wales where you will be outraged on a daily basis.

In answer to an earlier question elsewhere on the thread- yes food bags are more harmful as people use more of them, more often, where as clothes aren't bought as often. I think material wise, there's not that much difference pollution wise.