Plastic bag law is a waste of time

[Rufusgy]

Normal plastic bags are so thin and create hardly Any waste and many people reuse them. I use them to line my bins. So now will have to buy bin bags, that are usually thicker with more plastic.

These bags for life use a lot of plastic and I've seen study's that they waste far far more as they get grotty and people bin them after a dozen or so uses.

If they really wanted to make a change how about getting rid of all the plastic veg comes in or have a plastic bottle deposit scheme?

Its still all this stuff about a free bag if you buy raw fish or razor blades.

Attached a pic of my veg and all the plastic trays!

It's worked brilliantly well in Ireland. After a while the idea of automatically getting a landfill-bound plastic bag when buying something will seem as weird as lighting a cigarette in a cinema auditorium. I don't drive either, but I keep a couple of thin cotton bags that fold down to nothing in the bottom of my work satchel in case of shopping whims, and DH keeps a stash of reusable bags in the car boot.

Or you can always pay for bags if you've forgotten to bring a bag.

Pipbin, the schools here use nappy sacks for wet clothes.

Works well in Scotland - and you don't have to drive to take it on board. I always have a couple of bags in my handbag or coat pocket just in case. Agree that excess food packaging should be cut down, but this law (in Scotland, it's across the board) has made a huge, overnight difference to how we shop.

You'll find all the shops start selling these kind of fold up bags
www.amazon.co.uk/kitchen/dp/B00AB02G4C
when the law changed here in Scotland you could get them all over everywhere - and in poundland, aldi, poundstretcher, etc etc they were £1. I never bothered and got caught out a couple of times recently so tried to get one and I couldn't get them anywhere - then found some in a new pound shop (bought 2). Folded they are about 1.5 inch by 3 inch in a neat little bag so no hassle to keep in your bag/glove compartment. I try not to use mine -keep for emergencies - so I don't need to refold. (If you do get them try and avoid the ones with sewn on handles -get the integrated ones like the yellow one on that link - just remembered I did get one for DD1's dirty gym trainers a year ago and she managed to break the handles off within weeks - I had to sew them back!)

Another Scot but I've also lived in Europe (20 years ago!) And we've a long way to go in the UK.

We don't recycle nearly as much as can be recycled. Use far too much packaging around food especially non-biodegradable materials and are being hesitant in getting rid of plastic bags. Just ban them already. They're not necessary. For bin bags corn starch ones could be used beyond that you just don't need them.

In Europe string, jute, canvas and cloth bags are used, string and cloth are perfectly adequate for loose fruit and veg, i HATE seeing eg apples on a polystyrene tray wrapped in wads of clingfilm!! Cheese and deli meat could be packaged in greaseproof paper, small paper bags for things like mushrooms (which makes them last longer too) Also crates for car drivers, these can be plastic and reusable many times over but perfectly good ones can be made with wood/jute/reinforced canvas/wicker or a combination of these.

As a non driver I just always have a rucksack now if heading into town. For the weekly shop its no bother taking my jute/canvas bags in on the bus all stuffed in the biggest one. Admittedly it's a taxi back but only once a week.

My tesco (despite many other sins) does have a recycling point for things like batteries, light bulbs etc which is good.

I have oodles of the big canvas bags. I use them for all sorts of things, like packing for camping. But I always forget to put them back in the boot of the car. That's why I have oodles.... Keep buying more at Aldi.

Moving to one type of plastic is the best solution.

If every supermarket was forced into using one type we could recycle with ease.

Ikea quality bags for shopping, they last forever.

The battery recycling scheme isn't offered out of the goodness of Tesco's heart - it's a legal requirement.

I've had one of those thin nylon fold up bags in my handbags for years - I picked it up from M&S on a whim and it's been a godsend, but is now finally giving way at the seams. I'm going to need two replacements, one for each handbag. But I'm normally pretty good at this. Recently managed a week self catering in Wales without paying for any bags so I think I can adjust. We have so many cloth bags from various sources that they're becoming a serious storage problem in themselves.

I don't see any problem with this, but then I remember the 'olden' days, when you took your shopping bag or basket with you every time you went shopping. I remember to take a bag with me most times but I probably will invest in one of those fold up ones to go in my handbag as well.

In lots of places on the continent you get charged per bin bag. We have a tiny bin that gets taken every two weeks and anything else and all recycling you're expected to deal with yourself. We have a composting bin and an incineration bin (local power is generated by the incinerator and our buses run on the biogas from the composter.)

We all use cloth bags and it's perfectly common to see people unboxing stuff in the supermarket. They then have to pay for disposal of the packaging. Lo and behold, there's then less packaging on stuff... ;)

I try to only buy loose veg if I can. I hate seeing stuff on plastic trays!

YABU because a) it's been a huge success and b) it's such a boring/ crap argument to say 'because we aren't doing x good thing we shouldn't do any good thing'.

Such a simple, easy change to make.Why not?

It just means we'll have to buy bin liners now, instead of using supermarket bags.

I've yet to see reasons for it being a success.

I don't see plastic bags littering the uk.

Has the total amount of plastic gone down in countries with it? I doubt it.obviously bag use has gone down now they charge. Its just a silly little thing that probably makes a very insignificant change. Rather do this than to actually make sweaping big changes that will have a huge impact.

Right, because nobody bought bin liners before? I don't know anybody who uses carrier bags for their bin. Bins are too big, they need bigger bags.

I have the odd plastic bag here and there and they usually get put to use at some point, but I used to see people using twenty bags doing their big shop and my guess is that mostly, those bags were heading to the bin.

Lots of research was done on this. They haven't just randomly decided to charge. And supermarkets aren't making a penny from it, they're legally obliged to donate the money.

Having to pay for plastic bags on the whole really doesn't bother me. I've loads of canvas bags but tend to do the weekly shop online anyway. The driver brings the crates directly to my kitchen door so it's easy. Every now and then we don't send our bags back and use them for the litter tray/emptying the bathroom bin.

Really not that hard. I can't see how it'd be any different if I lived in a flat etc either.

However what does bother me is the sheer amount of plastic we recycle twice a month. Our bin is literally bursting with the stuff from spending £70ish at sainsburys every week, and there's only 3 of us living here. I love the sound of people in other countries discarding packaging in store, but worry I'd be escorted off the premises if I was brazen!

There's two views on here I don't understand:
1 - Why you need to use a bag from the shop you are shopping at? Does it matter if you take a Tesco bag to Sainsburys? A bag is a bag. I take all sorts with me. Who cares? If you're talking about needing a new bag for life, get one from the original supermarket and take it to the new supermarket - what's the problem? Or just buy hessian ones which last for years and can be used for all sorts of other things too.
2 - If you get shopping delivered why do you need plastic bags? I get all my main shop delivered and always choose no bags. Unless you live in a castle it's not that far from the door to the kitchen and the delivery people will bring the crate to the kitchen if you want/need to. They do still put some things in bags but I just empty them and hand them back at the end. They will also take other plastic bags off you to recycle.

I've seen people (both shoppers and cashiers) at supermarket checkouts put two things in a bag and then grab another one. Such a waste, and I would put money on these bags ending up in the bin rather than being re-used. They are the type of people who have made this law necessary, not those who re-use - although I think we still need all plastic bags bio-degradable bags.

I've got several of those little baggies and always have one on me. It does annoy me when the checkout people automatically put your shopping in a plastic bag instead of asking if you need one first (and before you ask, yes I do tell them to stop as I have my own bag).

I also get that this law appears to be excessively complicated and does not go far enough but it's a start at least. I definitely agree about excessive packaging on food, this is not a new thing, I remember being involved at school in a Which? article on it, some 20 years ago. Sad that it's not gone anywhere. I also remember working (again some time ago) in an independent wine shop where one of the staff used to make sure customers (we had a lot of regulars) brought their bags back next time to re-fill, and you could get re-fillable containers for ale on tap.

I love the idea about leaving all your packaging at the supermarket to stop your bin being too heavy when weighed, however the cynic in me things that in this country people will just put their rubbish in someone else's bin or dump it somewhere.

Its just a silly little thing that probably makes a very insignificant change.

Sounds like an excuse to be lazy and not take fabric bags with you.

I don't live in a flat but do have quite a walk from the car (on the street) into the house. Which is why I bought big jute shopping bags years ago (apart from environmental reasons). If I pack carefully I can carry 3 or 4 bags in at a time - so a max of two trips to the car. The thin flimsy plastic ones involved more trips with the handles cutting into my hands and frequent bursts...
My no1 supermarket bag tip is one of the big ikea blue ones. I put all the bulky light stuff (loo rolls, cereal boxes, bread etc) into one and carry it over my shoulder....

Lol @ lots of research!

Its an ill thought government vanity project that makes at best a tiny tiny reduction in plastic usage.

Go on then. I'll do the google thing for you - though I had assumed that most people were just refraining from stating the obvious!

www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/environmental-policy/plastic-bag-problem-ze0z1302zwar.aspx

15Million sq kilometres of the Pacific filled with 'plastic soup

Why not just make them have all bags biodegradable by law and charge whatever?

What we've ended up with is a ridiculously complicated system and the bags are the same old ones.

yes they are the same sort of bags - just a lot less of them

For years now I have annoyed supermarkets. I buy my goods then stand slightly aside and remove all unnecessary packaging which they are then required to dispose of.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/nov/15/greenpolitics.ethicalliving
An environment minister once urged more people to do it too.

Back in the 90s, when such packaging started to escalate, you could get banned for unpackaging your food. At a time when supermarkets were not n every corner I managed to be banned from every one in our city.Obviously I contacted HO and complained, I would have written as email was not the in thing back then.

It is easy to grasp why it is a good start. It is also very easy to live without most plastic packaging and one use bags.

www.biodeg.org/EU%20Plastics%20industry%20advises%20against%20bio-based%20plastic.pdf

That's why.