to think a charge for carrier bags is counterproductive

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Parliament are apparently going to approve a 5p charge for plastic bags.
Surely everyone reuses them as bin liners and if they werent getting the carrier bags would buy proper binliners instead which are made of thicker plastic so even more environmentally unsound.

YABU
About time they got rid of them
SO LONG AS supermarkets stop using them for delivery shopping

KeepingUpAnon I never thought of that re delivery men!!

When I get the groceries delivered the Tesco driver brings them inside and unpacks the crate onto my kitchen table!!

So there's a benefit of the plastic bag charge!

In my experience tesco plastic bags have holes (the size of tangerines) in the bottom. So cannot be used for general waste.

I only buy 1 carrier bag now, and that's for raw meat. Then I use that bag as tin recycling.

about time I say! maybe 5p is a bit low, though, 20p would be more adequate.

am sick of seeing those flimsy bags (that are useless anyway, too weak for any weighty items) blowing high up in the trees and on the motorway verges.
they are even useless as bin bags because of the holes.

I always carry a canvas bag or 2 in my bag for the chocolates pint of milk on the way home. for the weekly shop we use large plastic crates (ikea trofast boxes) in the boot of the car. no need for plastic bags.

If they are going to charge I hope they go back to the better quality carrier bags rather than the flimsy ones they have now.

want you mean like the 'bags for life' (yeah right )
newsflash shops already charge for these. the shops just need to ge rid of the flimsy bags.

sorry for the rant, am a bit grumpy tonight....

www.apmbags.com/bagmyths
this is interesting. plastic bags are made of a waste material so any environmental impact is caused by the use of the oil, not the making of the bag.
so, basically, it's about littering?

Like your top tip cheap bread.

I remember when plastic bags first came in. They cost 3 or 4p iirc.

gimmer

The biodegradable bags get on my wick. They degrade too quickly. They turn into confetti in my bag of bags.

I use them for bins and I am ripping at this charge.

I moved into this house less than 7 years ago. The carrier bags at the bottom of my idea carrier bag holder are therefore less than 7 years old and have disintegrated completely into flakes of white.

Killing the turtles my fucking arse.

The 5p charge in Wales goes to a charity (I'm assuming an environmental charity). But I can agree that it has greatly reduced the amount of carrier bags used. And the ones that are now bought, are mostly bags for life which are being reused. I think it's about time that England brought this policy into work too.

Maybe if we send our used bags to the polar bears for them to carry their seals home in?

I live in Belgium where you basically take your own bag (for life) to the shops, or have to buy a new reusuable one. Or use a cardboard box. It is not hard. I am always slightly horrified when I go in Sainsburys in the UK and your shopping ends up in about 50 of the flimsy plastic things. They were charging for bags in Dublin when I worked there 11 years ago. Surely it is not that scary a concept.

i try and re-use all plastic packaging where i can, as PP said, plastic packaging from loo/kitchen roll gets used for the bathroom bin, carrier bags are always used as bin liners (haven't bought black bags for about two years), they also get used inside swimming bags for wet clothes, to carry lunch to/from work inside my handbag, keep a few in the car for general crap gathering.

alot of them come from local shop where they charge 2p a bag (proceeds to charity) and the rest from supermarket (free). i'll still buy them at 5p a bag purely out of habit, though i may get better at remembering to take bags for life for a big shop.

Mousmous no I meant not quite as sturdy as the bags for life but somewhere In between that and the ones they give away now. I am sure that the bags used to be stronger about 10 years or so ago.

I used to love the kwik save bags, super strong and lasted forever.

M&S have charged 5p for bags for six years now, and use has dropped by 75%.

I can't believe that people are complaining because they might have to buy bin liners! Fancy having to pay for something...

Owl I am complaining because overall I will not be using any less plastic bags than I currently do but I will be paying more.

Sainsburys and I are both happy ?ith the current arrangement.

Reusing carrier bags/bags for life is just grim, things that have touched raw meat should be disposed of, never reused; they might then come into contact with food items that won't be cooked.

I hold a food hygiene certificate and it drums into you the dangers of the pathogens contained in raw meat and how they must be kept away from other food items. I find it bizarre that nobody seems to have thought about this issue in relation to carrier bags.

I have see up thread.

That why I buy 1 carrier bag a week, the cloth bags can be washed, normally do them all on my towel load.

Reusing carrier bags/bags for life is just grim

Well it's only grim if you've bought raw meat and then re-use that bag. I'm vegan so not an issue for me but I know my mum always uses a separate carrier bag for raw meat which she does then throw away. All other carrier bags/ bags for life are kept and re-used.

That said doesn't raw meat bought in a supermarket usually come sealed in air-tight plastic packaging anyway?