to tell everyone to return the Tesco Bags For Life

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Can we talk about Tesco's Bags For Life because it's pissing me off.

So, everyone agrees that people using and chucking away carrier bags is an issue. Awesome! Government introduces a charge on all plastic bags. Tesco still offers the 5p bags but also 10p bags for life that they promise to replace forever. Good strong bags, nice strong handles. Great!

A while later they quietly get rid of the 5p bags. Fine.

Except now, having clearly realised that most people don't care enough to return a 10p bag, they've changed the design of the Bags For Life. Gone are the nice strong separate handles, instead we have holes in the bag itself which are nowhere near as strong. The plastic itself is much thinner. I've had these die after one use on some occasions. Yes, it's only 10p but it's also one more useless piece of plastic which I'm sure is because they know no-one will call them on their Bags for Life guarantee -- and the amount who do isn't enough to cost them more than they save with cheap nasty bags.

Delivery here - no car usage or bags..
Top up shop done in Aldi using a cupboard box instead of a basket. Reload into it at cashier. I walk the mile home with a box no problem.

Well, I take BfL back when they get unusable. DP says he’s just uncovered a whole load in clearing the garden, nearly white but the supermarket logos just visible. So it’ be interesting to see how it goes with returning those .

I use BfL for keeping stuff dry in my rucksack/ bike bag, walking a mile at lunchtime back to the office with shopping etc. None of these are well served with bulky hessian bags or boxes.

Twenty years ago when I worked in Sainsburys, people always used the boxes. There would be an area behind the checkouts where the warehouse people would dump the boxes, and a huge proportion of people would use them.

Thinking about it though, I wonder what they did with them when they got home, given recycling wasn't such a big thing back then. However, it's still better for the environment than plastic.

Now they don't tend to have the box areas anywhere that I've seen, probably a fire risk or something.

I've lived in a European country for 4 years. They sell very sturdy bags for a £1 that really do last, but also collapsible baskets. Most people also use empty cardboard boxes from products.

We should be using the cardboard boxes that were holding all the stock

Not when I can't park anywhere near my house! I'm not struggling with boxes when bags are so much easier. I usually have an Ocado delivery though and any bags not used for something else are handed back to the driver for recycling next time.

I do miss the cheap bags though as I used them for rubbish so I now have to buy bin bags so I'm still using plastic.

These bags for life drive me crazy, much larger use of plastic with these! The 10p isn''t enough to put anyone off, Tesco is cashing in on it, and the reduce plastic campaign is missing out completely, as a lot of us pop in or buy more than we expected and didn't bring the sufficient number of bags from home

This is my favourite bag for life I got in Le Mans, France. €8, must be about 4 years old and has WHEELS. I will mourn it's loss when it gives up the ghost. It was worth every penny (cent?), sad we don't have them in the uk.

Yep, I'm the first to agree that carrying boxes is a lot harder when you can't park near your house! However, plenty of people can, and it would be nice if there was the option.

Bunnings had a cardboard box area behind their tills I realised the other day, so maybe it's not entirely fire safety related?

I agree with the PP, I’d like some kind of paper bag when buying clothes or whatever. Some shops will wrap clothes in tissue but I’ve often had to ask.

When I moved to London in 1988, Safeway had really strong paper bags. I don’t understand why we can’t have paper bags?

Curiously if you order Tesco home grocery delivery with bags (40p flat rate) you get a ton of 5p bags. Our council have recently declared that we can put ordinary supermarket 5p bags in the food waste bin. So it’s all kind of gone full circle.

If plastic bags were actually banned, people would get creative. There were far fewer cars years ago, yet people managed...

@Tartsamazeballs

That's very handy bag!

This is the closest I could find

Environmental soundness- like lots of things, notable health - isn’t just a matter of ‘good ‘ or ‘bad ‘ but weighing up several parameters.

A single-use plastic bag takes less energy to make than a cardboard box and even, IIRC, a like-for-like paper bag. But then you have its non-biodegradability, and the fact that the raw materials for petro-plastics are a valuable resource that shouldn’t be squandered. (Biodegradable bio-plastics may be an answer here.)

Even single-use bags get several uses in my household *. Paper or cardboard? Not usually good for more than the recycling, or possibly even compost. This doesn’t sit well with the ‘re-use preferable to recycle ‘ principle.

*If we want to really address plastic bag use- how about the fact that many shops (certainly in my area) still ply you with them, and even get artsy if you refuse. If I wanted to I could have all the bags anyone could want, free, just from a wander around my local shops and markets.

The point is that the cardboard boxes have already been made for another use. You are simply reusing them - as many times as needed, or can be returned for someone else to use (if practical). And they biodegrade better.

OP, that's the best diagram I've ever seen on Mumsnet. Applause.

You can't get anything in them or the Sainsbury ones as they don't expand at the sides. I hate them.

Speaking of Ikea bags, somewhere, I got a mini one - the same shape as the big guys, but more handbag sized. I loved it, used it as a nappy/picnic bag/whatever - but I've never seen them again, and kick myself for not buying more. I got a smaller one recently, but it's not the right shape, so not as convenient.

The smaller ones (20p at the till) are brilliant for picnics and similar. Long and short straps like the large ones.

I reckon a (currently hypothetical) 30p size could be the holy grail.

I used to use the big Ikea bags for laundry bags. They are great for taking the washing in and out. I ended up using the bags for something else and bought a proper plastic laundry basket. I still don't like it as much as the bags.

unhygenic?

they are fecking plastic, they wash! turn inside out, swish about in soapy water, drip dry over bath/on line.

either that or have bags for specific things.

What is the most environmental solution for lining bins? I use tesco bags (that I get from Tesco delivery) - the 5p ones for kitchen bin and the red ones without handles for bathroom bin. Is there a more eco solution?

I tried to return what I thought was a Sainsbury's bag for life and was told they don't do them any more. It was just an Orange shopping bag as far as they were concerned!

unhygenic?
they are fecking plastic, they wash! turn inside out, swish about in soapy water, drip dry over bath/on line.
either that or have bags for specific things
**

I have a lot & I can’t be arsed

Tesco seem to be in the shit. They are closing down their tesco direct website on the 9th June.

These are the perfect reuseable shopping bags:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Envirosax-Foldaway-Large-Shoulder-Bag-Shopping-Market-Beach-Gym-Holiday-Tote-Gym/282742223008?epid=18011074454&hash=item41d4bff0a0:m:mV6Zse85imVH8stYelA8uXg

Pretty designs, fold up to nothing but hold loads - easy to wash.

Saying you don't have room in your car for shopping bags is ridiculous.

I don't drive, I do my shopping on foot, and I manage to take enough bags with me to carry a decent load of shopping home.

When empty, they are all just folded or scrunched up inside a large book bag.

I use the Waitrose ones that scrunch up into their own little pouch - they are small enough to fit in a pocket - and the tough ones from Tesco that have e.g. Star Wars or Paw Patrol designs on and you can fold. They are made of extremely strong plastic and fold up very small and are indestructible.

If I can carry enough bags when walking then I'm sure you can somehow manage it in a car.

I don't want to have half my boot taken over with those ridiculous hessian bags that don't compress down properly meaning I can't put other stuff in my boot during the week because it's become an offshoot of the unexpected item in the bagging area territory. I don't particularly want to have to wade through half a dozen crappy bags to get to things like the kids scooters that live in the car boot - it annoys me and I'm perfectly entitled to be bloody annoyed by it cos the design of the reusable bags is quite honestly shit at the moment (unless you're wafting around in a car with a big boot wrecking the planet with a tank of a car you can't fit in a carparking space I can do eco-angst top trumps too ) It's irrelevant to me if you can waft up the face of Everest with your bags for life really.

The old style Tesco bags for life were actually the most practical ones around as they actually folded down compactly and weren't total shit.