To have not noticed about the 5p carrier bag charge?

[Snoozebox]

I feel it was sprung upon us! When was it officially agreed by government?

I was in Tesco today and saw the signs that from sometime next month it will be enforced.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with the charge and have heard about it being discussed for years, but I didn't know it had been made mandatory! The cashier looked at me pityingly when I queried it and said it has been all over This Morning the media for weeks. Have I been too distracted by Jeremy Corbyn's lovely visage to notice this?

Lokk at these figures and tell me this is not a good idea. It is so much better for the environment and the money raised will be used for good causes. What is not to like?

They don't need to find us a solution. The solution is straightforward... People need to take their own bags with them. People being given new plastic bags every time they go to the shops isn't sustainable. Paper bags are arguably worse for the environment despite being biodegradable. the problem isn't the material the bags are made from... It's the fact that they get used once and then they become bin bags or are just thrown away. I have one particuar cloth bag (a pretty patterned one) that I bought for £1 in peacocks about 9 years ago. It gets used an awful lot, for shopping or to carry exercise books to and from school. Every so often (not very often at all tbh) it goes into the washing machine and comes out good as new. Give it one more year and I might replace it . I also have some tesco ones and a small ikea one that are super handy for shopping in supermarkets. I don't drive and love the small ikea one because it means I can carry heavy shopping on my shoulder rather than getting sore hands.

Oh sirzy dont you get it?

The last carrier bag I bought (in Ireland) cost me 45c. I'm so mean that I've never forgot to bring a jute bag with me since.

I've still got that one folded up in my handbag because our refuse collection is also charged by weight.

Nope I don't get why you are getting so wound up. You are the one who seems to be missing the point as to why it has been introduced.

Scholes I really admire your ability to remember when you got your plastic bags.

There was this same kerfuffle when Ireland brought in the law. But you move on amazingly quickly and bringing bags is just the norm.

I'll have to stockpile with my next couple of shops.

Not sure how environmentally friendly my having to buy rolls of bin liners now will be either having used carriers in my kitchen bin for years.

It's stopped me ordering online food shopping. I don't want to pay for their excessive use of carrier bags. And I don't want a delivery guy traipsing through to the kitchen or dumping the crates out into my hallway.
I mainly use aldi and costco anyway and take my own bags to aldi.
The one that confuses me is will it apply in clothing shops as well? I don't want to put brand new clothes into a used carrier bag or a reusable bag that might have had chicken etc in. Also if I'm browsing i might not have decided how much I'm going to buy, what if I buy a pair of boots and my bag isn't big enough? Surely
The problem is excess package and not carrier bags?
The stuff that gets out of my rubbish bin and flys around the garden are plastic bags from fruit and veg. Why does the box of southern fried frozen chicken fillets come in a plastic bag inside a box?

I think it's good idea and usually have a bag in my handbag in case I still at the shop anyway because I hate the waste in getting a plastic bag each time.

JuJu - you could always just put your stuff back in the trolley without a bag, wheel to your car, put items into your car, put tolley in the tolley shed. Obviously, it will be easier at the other end when you arrive home to carry your items into your house with a bag, but perfectly possible.

you'll cope. These one-use bags are a disgusting waste. Organise yourself.

might also make everyone generate less rubbish if bin liners now need to be paid for. THINK about what you bring home. Buy loose veg and fruit, (they all sell it that way) don't buy plastic-wrapped multipacks, etc etc.

you could even train the dog to excrete in your own garden; apparently the guide dogs do it.

It is not the consumer that should pay for these companies to not find a solution. Its called pass the buck to people that already pay far too much for consumables.

oh but OP - YANBU - it hasn't really been well publicised.

PS I get no-bag online deliveries occasionally. The stuff IS placed in my hallway, I take it out of the crates, then put it all away once the van has gone. Not difficult really.

Cptart- same here, I use any supermarket carrier bags we get as bin liners. Will now need to but rolls of bin bags. Maybe need to work out what's cheaper? Keep paying 5p for a carrier bag to use as a bin liner or how much per bag is on a roll.

THINK about why these companies wont find a bio degradable solution! sheep.

So what solution do you suggest to stop consumers using as many carrier bags?

SmugairleRon - holiday souvenirs. The Globus one is great - double-size, holders for bottles inside, plus short and long handles. All this for just one Euro!

JuJu I don't actually get why you think you should be given a bag. This is a pretty new thing anyway. In my mum's day you took your shopping basket to the shops with you. It is only with the advent of large supermarkets that getting free bags began. It is now out of hand. Get some strong bags you like (or use bags you already have). Use them over and over and you will never need to pay the 5p surcharge in any supermarket.

Woodley here clothes shops do free paper bags in different sizes.

Because they make it sound like the consumer is wrong and has to be responsible.

Biodegradable bags are still chargeable. Or at least they are where I am. So finding a biodegradable solution would make no difference to the charge.

We do our main 'staples' shop from Aldi, who do not provide free plastic bags. Therefore we remember to take our own big bags for life when we go there.
When we go to Sainsburys / Asda etc we 9 times out of 10 forget to take our own bags because I guess its not an issue as they are provided. This is just a sign that we as a family need to plan better and pull our socks up.
We just need to get into the Aldi habit EVERY time we go shopping - I am all for this change - even though I daresay either my DH or I will be doing that mad dash back to the car to get the empty bags from the boot everytime we start to unload our shopping in a Sains or Asda,....well, so be it .

Whether it will go to charity or not JuJuMun, you're really going to have to get used to it.

DH is a Scot and we visited his family in the Highlands recently. We'd been out for the day and DSIL decided to treat us all to a takeaway. She and DH were nattering away and forgot the carrier bag. Chinese charged her 10p for two bags. It was that or take the lot home in their arms.

If you go to many European countries you have to pay for carrier bags. We did in the UK until quite recently. My mum always gave us the shopping bag when we ran errands.

As someone has already said, if the companies themselves (whether they are Tesco or the local Indian restaurant) paid the cost how would that encourage people to stop asking for bags? I do sometimes get caught out - when I realise at school drop off that I am running low on things for lunch boxes etc for example. But most of the time I take a bag or two with me even though we don't have to pay. I'm usually fighting the cashier to NOT give me a bag - especially if they start packing before I finish loading the conveyor belt!

And, of course, from the companies point of view they aren't getting advertising as such. My DSIL would have used her Asda bags if she'd remembered them. That doesn't advertise her local Chinese anymore than using M&S bags advertise that you've just bought your milk at Sainsbury's. They'd much prefer you to use their own bags than advertise a rival.

And, if you'd seen the poor little bird we rescued from a chucked away plastic bag a few years ago you'd soon get into the 'bring a bag' habit. Poor thing was pitiful. It'd got caught in the handles and had become entangled. Not nice to see.

Marks and Spencer and WH Smiths already make a charge for bags and have done for a few years now.

But the consumer is wrong in this case. We do use a lot more bags than we need to. The idea of this is to change consumer behaviour.

That's not to say supreme rants shouldn't do their part by reducing packaging as much as possible of course. But that is a seperate - equally important - issue.