Plastic bags, surely you should only use them if you NEED them

[Lorayn]

I have just got back from my local tesco metro and was extremely annoyed by the three people in front of me, one bought a loaf of bread and a pint of milk, another a newspaper and a loaf of bread, and the third a bottle of water and a sandwich (wonder if her 'healthy lunch had aspartame in it?).
ALL 3 customers put their purchases in a plastic bag, and two of them then got in their car.
Surely we should only be using carrier bags when our hands are full?
I used to work in a bakery and was amazed by how many people wanted a bag for a small cake and a roll, so much so I started refusing regular lunchtime customers carrier bags with less than four items and when three or four people came in from the same office I'd let them have one bag between them.
I'm known for getting a bee in my bonnet but I really don't think laziness constitutes the damage plastic bags actually do.
Carrier bags should be for use if you have no other way to carry something, and then reused when possible. (Actually reuse them though, rather than collect them in the cupboards like I do!!)

i often refuse carrier bags, as i usually have my buggy with me, some shop owners think i am mad. if they pack for me and ignore my 'no bags please' then i just take the stuff out of the bag and hand it back to them.

Ha, yes, I quite often empty my carrier bags, some shops seem to be determined to get you to use them. I no longer have the need for baby wipes/nappies/bottles/clean clothes etc, so there is a new space in my bag for my shopping!!

Totally agree Lorayn, I work in a Tesco and am constantly amazed by people using carrier bags needlessly, last week one girl put her 1 small can of dog food in a bag - it would have fitted in her handbag if she didn't want to carry it!

(am sure the woman's lunch was aspartame free, unless she went for 'flavoured' water )

And I will often take a bag-for-life into town with me to put stuff in rather than take home lots of bags. When I had my buggy, everything went under/on it - no bags needed!

i totally agree, i got hold of a load of cloth bags off here (soem very nice people) to keep with me for this very reason. checkout people look at me like im barmy tho! oh well, they'r not too far off!!

although must admit i generally forget to take enough bags for a monthly shop but then tey get reused numerous times before they become bin bags (we only have a pedal in in our very stupidly desinged kitchen!

I totally agree but then plastic bags are necessary SOMETIMES. Our butcher has decided not to use plastic any more so he wraps the meat in paper. It leaks and it means you can't go to another shop afterwards, you have to go straight home. Yuk. It's fine for his deli counter but raw meat?

If I have forgotten to take a bag out with me I would ask for a bag for my cake and a roll. I don't want to then carry on with other errands, trying to fish in pockets and open purse etc whilst juggling a disintegrating cake and roll.
Did you assume that all your bakery customers just go straight back to work, or that they immediately eat their purchases in the street after leaving your shop?
Bag rationing by the shop assistant would probably have had me avoiding your shop!
Our local market traders sell great canvas bags that they have all clubbed together for, and proclaims what a great market we have, so I use those most of the time.

take your own bag in that situation?

yes...but for lots of people it is still a habit to just pop their purchases in a bag.

Chap in woolies tried to get me to take a bag on security grounds today (well, he was sort of joking) in case the local teenage troublemakers (he used the Ch word ) tried to steal my bag of sweets.

Most of the people that came into my bakery were regular customers that came every day, and went straight back to work in the many offices/estate agents nearby. They usually came in twos or threes, there were on occasions regular customers that would say to me they were going somewhere else and I would give them a bag, these customers understood the point i was making and often bought the bags back with them the next day.
And I understood that sometimes it was really inconvenient not to have a bag, eg, the elderly people with sticks/walkers, would have found it hard to carry things, as would the mums with a child holding each hand, but the local estate agent just going from the bakery to his car, and then to the office???
I understand the butcher situation, thats part of the reason the thread is entitled 'surely you should only use them if you NEED them'.

Simple solution like they did in The Netherlands - start charging for the bags - reduces waste instantly. Thought this was going to be introduced in the UK. I for one always recycle my bags either for the next shop or other uses or in the recycle bag box. Here in the US, you get offered paper bags which is great and get 1cent back on every bag you take in in many shops.

I asked my boss about charging but she didnt think it was good for business which is why I made it my own personal crusade!!
But I know it made some difference because I have since seen some of my customers refusing bags in places they didnt know I was

I think in Ireland you have to pay for bags which are reusable ones - fab idea if you ask me, people would soon start remembering to bring them back to reuse!

I think 10p per bag is a fair price as there is no excuse not to re-use them or use bag for life ones. I worked in dps bakery and your right about the amount of bags that you get through and it is mainly office workers. It's like people are obsessed with them and i hate it when i am in a shop and i have bought 1 item and they automatically put it in a bag. I take it out again, it's so waistful!

If you wont reuse it you should refuse it!

A lot of shops now ask me if I want a bag and quite often I refuse since I've taken to carrying a cotton shopper with me. It took me a few weeks to 'train' the assistant in my local WHSmiths not to give me a bag when I bought my daily paper. I think she just twigged on that I didn't want one then I left that particular job and wouldn't be going in there lunchtimes anymore .

In Ireland I think you pay a few euro cents for a bag but I also believe that the 'bag tax' there actually goes towards environmental projects - could we be so sure that this would happen in this part of the UK? . Road tax is not necessarily reserved for road maintenance. Carry a cotton shopper instead - it's more asthetically pleasing than toting loads of plastic carriers.

I find it quite a battle refusing carrier bags. I decided to stop taking them a while ago and bought a few reusable ones. If I am just buying a book or something, I will say "Don't worry about the bag" and they look at me as if I am mad! Sometimes they put it in the bag anyway, then I have to take it out.

A guy in front of me in a queue bought a loaf of bread and a mini pack of washing powder and placed them in a bag each! I have also seen people double bagging shopping!

I have never seen anyone else filling their own bags. Not to say it doesn't happen of course, but thinking of all those reusable carriers Sainsburys gave away, I never see them being used.

The bags are free advertising - that is why a lot of shops want you to have one.
I use re-usable bags whenever I remember to take them. Then I find that I need a plastic bag at home - for putting muddy shoes in in the car, or something - and I haven't got any
I had my bags packed in Asda the other day as dd wasn't very well. I couldn't believe how many bags the woman used - even tho I had my own, they were less than half filled

I go into Asda with 2 sainsbury's bags, one M&S one, a tesco wine carrier, 2 asda bags, my bookstart one and a real nappy campaign one I do get a few odd looks tbh

Oh, and, you have to pay for bags in Aldi - I think it's 3p per bag.

i like the Sainsburys reusable ones, they cost 75p, the orange fold up ones. They have lasted me ages and show no signs of wearing out, have hard bottoms and fold up neatly.

I like plastic bags, I reuse them for all sorts of things, rubbish bags in the car, somewhere to put muddy shoes in the car, every small waste bin int he house, to put out my recycling as the box provided isn't big enough, as dog poop bags on walks, to double bag food waste that can't be recycled, as swimming/gym bag for wet clothes or toiletries, cover for bike seats when raining.....list goes on

They don't all end up at landfills

Well, any of the ones used for dog poop and food will do as I assume you then put them in the bin?
But anyway, they are still being reused, and I'm hoping you only use one in a shop when really needed rather than because you're too lazy to actually use your hands?

Anyone else feeling guilty reading this thread?
I have bought so many "bags for life" and only about 3 times have i remembered to take them shopping with me. Even have that huge blue thing you can buy - great for washing - and forget it. So am re-buying bags for life pretty much everytime i shop. Have about 25 of the things

Depends, if I need my hands to push my daughters wheelchair and trolley

And not sure how you get the dog shit from the ground to dispose of in a bin without some sort of bag either....i know the wardens aren't that happy to empty a bin full of just poo and not contained, maybe I sould just leave it for someone to tread in???

You're never going to get 100% abolition of carrier bags - I'm quite happy if people do reuse them for bin liners or poop bags. If you didn't use carrier bags and religiously reused them, it'd still be plastic bags of one type or another being used for those purposes! For health reasons I certainly wouldn't pick up any type of poo or waste in my bare hands and I wouldn't expect anyone else to.