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.

I also live in Wales, and most people have got into the habit of taking bags out shopping with them. I always have a little fold up one in my handbag, and a pile of jute ones in my car.
Please remember the reason for the bag levy: it's an environmental issue. Plastic pollution is an increasingly serious problem, and plastic bags are also a practical hazard to wildlife. Many countries have banned them altogether, and lots of US cities are now doing so also. I think we should do so too, and I'd really love for manufacturers to reduce the amount of plastic packaging they use, too. Maybe inconvenient, but hey, we'll survive!

I second that, Daisychain01

After a month you don't give a second thought to reaching for the jute bags before heading to the shops. It's like the smoking ban, after a while it just becomes second nature.

Someone asked about supermarket deliveries.

I used to do my online shop with Sainsburys but when the carrier bag charge was brought in I switched to Tesco because they give you the option of opting out of bags, whereas Sainsburys insisted on delivering in bags and then you have to pay for them.

The difference in littering is phenomenal, you no longer see plastic bags stuck in every hedge, it's great.

It's amazing what a financial incentive can do - its about a £15 a year saving per person, but its enough to shift behaviour and once people start to do things differently and realise its fine, they carry on.
In some parts of Germany, rubbish collection is charged completely separately to the equivalent of council tax, and varies according to how much you throw away. So the bigger your bin the more you pay. Imagine what that could do for recycling rates

They weigh your bins in Ireland too, makes people MUCH better at recycling.

How do you ensure that other people don't put their rubbish in your bin so that you would have to pay for it? That's what I would worry about, here, in England.

I think England's way behind other countries in recycling. I lived in Germany in the 80s and they were already recycling loads. Also, they did this really cool thing where every 3 months everyone could put their big rubbish that they didn't want, onto the street and other people could walk around and take whatever they wanted. There was no shame in it. It worked really well. I got a couple of chairs that way and some other stuff.

I used to have a neighbour who insisted that as DW and I are alone (DS moved out) we did not need a full bin's space and that she could and would put her excess bags (three DCs) in our bin! She backed off but if the excess was costing her money . . .

Oh, thanks, Maryz. That's kind of what I assumed might happen.

I know they have this kind of paying for waste in Belgium, but I don't know how it happens there or whether people are just more honest .

I'm from Wales and am currently holidaying in England. I found myself going at the shop recently when I asked for a bag and was handed about ten.

I must be conditioned to using fewer bags due to the tax, even when I do end up paying for them. Not a bad thing, surely.

I was a sceptic when it was introduced in Wales but it does really work. I've probably donated about 1.50 to charity as a result of forgetting bags but I don't begrudge it because it's for charity and shops are usually transparent about which one they support.

We get bin liners from the council and I buy black bags, the black bag recycling goes out every fortnight and I rarely send a full bag because so much can get recycled now. I've seen a dramatic drop in plastic bag litter and littering overall seems to have dropped (probably because litter picking charities get more money).

The only difference I think is noticeable is that the supermarket baskets are now tagged because so many of them get stolen.

I do miss going on a clothes shopping spree and coming back laden with bags but if that's the only sacrifice, I'm pretty fine about it.

"...I still use them as liners but empty the contents into a refuse sack so they stay in the bin until they get really manky and I begrudgingly use another. Top tip: I use the toilet roll plastic packaging as a liner for the bathroom bin..."

That's pretty much what I do cheapbread, although I only use the large loo roll bags as bins (hung over the kitchen door handle) rather than carrier bags. All smelly (but non-recyclable) waste goes straight in the council black bags, and the non smelly stuff is emptied into it when the loo roll bag is full. Got a little pedal bin in the bathroom, but all I do with that is tip the contents out into the black bag rather than keep changing the liner.

I'm all for cutting back on the use of plastic bags and if charging for supermarket carrier bags is one way of doing it then good.

I went to England recently and felt like I was stealing when I walked out without paying for a bag.

I'm in Wales too and have no problem with using my own bags for shopping. I've only bought a bag when I've got over enthusiastic buying clothes in Matalan. I use the charity bags I receive through the letterbox as bin liners. I get at least 2 a week which keeps me in liners for a while. I know they have holes in them but my bin only holds stuff that the Council doesn't have a recycling bag/bin for.

I need all the carrier bags I can for dog poo. I hate the thin small bags...I grab the poo in the plastic not turn it inside out so the holes are irrelevant.
I use 4 a day but luckily there always seem to be a few blowing around which I pick up.
I do realise the country's policy on bags can't be decided on my need alone but I am concerned.

Sorry OP, but UABU.
Not everyone uses plastic bags as bin liners - we don't because we don't have many plastic bags in the house. I have always reused bags since the I left home in 1980. My mum reused plastic bags in the 70s. It is just habit.
The sooner they introduce a charge the better.

We almost never get a bag from any shop. DH sometimes uses carriers as bin liners; we never use them if up to me. They come to us from all sorts of places but rarely from our own shopping. Don't need them for anything else, either. We have so many suitable waste bags from other purposes filling out drawers & still toss out loads of plastic bags.

The other thing Ive noticed is that the culture in Welsh shops is relaxed about people walking out with a few items held in their hand if you don't want a bag. You don't get looked up and down like a shop lifter, it's just accepted that's how people shop. Just keep hold of your receipt, job's a good'un.

Especially blokes, let's face it, they don't walk round with a neat little bag for life folded up in their trouser pocket now do they

Looks like Scotland voted to start charging for plastic bags from October - www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-27612897

There is a statistic in the article that estimates Scotland uses 750 million bags per year!