... to think that charging 30p for a carrier bag is taking the piss and has naff all to do with Attenborough and his polar bears?

[BerwickLad]

Seriously, 30p in Morrisons now. Even a paper bag is 25p. And Sainsbury's are charging 30p for little bags to put your loose fruit and vegetables in. This has gone way beyond trying to get people to cut down on plastic. What is wrong with just recycling the damn things anyway if you don't want them choking sea-lions etc? Rather fleecing customers?

I have lots of spare cotton bags. I’ll happily send you some if it helps x

People are more likely to reuse good quality expensive bags and other items. Waitrose, Ikea, Aldi / Lidl and M&S realised this years ago.

@messolini9

You mean the multiple times in the 80s 90s ect with ozone, nuclear weapons we have been told we were going to die by experts.

Unless you can change China and India you are on hiding onto nothing.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll exactly. It's just another way to make money. If they actually gave a shit about climate change/emergency/whatever there are loads of things they could do about it but instead they charge us for things which we didn't used to have to pay for, as costs were presumably absorbed within prices, and tell us it's because they're being ethical. The fuckers.

We have three local beaches, in the spring/summer/autumn we have volunteers who litter pick regularly. Facebook pages say when and where to meet, also dog walkers pick up litter daily. It is mostly plastic. One tiny strip of beach in the village we filled 14 large sacks with litter in October. I cannot imagine how much is floating out of reach of volunteers. It is a huge problem.

Most shops donate the cost of the carrier bags to charity. So it's not a money making scheme

I'd be interested to see the figures on that if you have any. I don't buy bags (take my own) but I thought most stores' small print says they donate the profit from the bags ... which can mean almost anything

And if major stores find the use of plastic bags so loathsome, can anyone explain why they're so keen to print them with their own advertising? After all the printing process impacts the environment too ...

@HeresMe exactly. Me using a plastic product for the purpose it is designed for when I need to do so is hardly the same as running a coal fired power station.

@Herbalteahippie i have a shit tonne of bags, thanks. I just didn't have any on me today so I had to buy them at 30p a pop as it was the only way of carrying my food due to not raping the planet by driving a car (see? I can play this game too).

This thread has got a bit weird. What game are you winning by lining Sainsbury’s pockets but taking the moral high ground by not driving? Cop on to yourself.

@Pumpernotpumper well obviously I'm losing as I got gouged, but I'm notionally engaging with the environmental top trumps dance to show how stupid it is.

But why? It’s not stupid, it’s a really successful campaign because people are reusing bags, that’s brilliant! People driving is a totally separate issue, you’re just desperately trying to make out everyone else is a hypocrite - which is another stupid argument, as had already been pointed out to you. You should have been more organised, you weren’t, and it’s cost you 30p. If that bag was £100 it would no longer be convenient for you to pop into a supermarket on your way home and easily replace a forgotten bag. So you’ve massively lucked out. The supermarket is 30p better off because of your disorganisation. Which you’re annoyed about, but no so annoyed that you went back for your bag or made so with what you already had at home or went to a shop closer to your house or any other option available to you.

I work in a shop and people can be incredibly rude about bags. My friend served a lady with a prepacked chicken and she asked for a bag. Friend told her they were 5p and she kicked off shouting and carrying on at my friend about the law saying we must provide bags for fresh meat. My poor friend was getting a bit upset so I stepped in and explained that actually the guidelines state that yes we have to provide a bag but we are allowed to charge but on this occasion I would give her a bag in the name of good customer service. The customer behind her gave me 5p and said "here i'll pay as it's for charity". Some people are just natural arseholes.

SmileEachDay What do you mean? Do you really think it’s possible not to leave an environmental impact over the course of your life?

I would like to know where all the money paid for bags is going, the maximum charge is supposed to be 10p, Morrison's is charging 25p for a paper bag, 30p for a carrier & even more for the woven bags. Sainsbury's have been total jobsworths over the bag policy but even they only charge 10p for a bag. Why can't supermarkets bring back the hard plastic crates that they had a few years ago, they were brilliant, hard wearing & a lot more useful than bags.

MrsGrindah

No of course not. I’m sorry, I think I maybe took my frustration with the OP out on you a little.

I think plastic bags are a no brainer. I don’t think it’s ok to think “meh. I’m not directly impacting”. But I appreciate that actually what you were saying was you are doing your best.

@Pumperthepumper I'm trying to say, in a clumsy way, that me using two fucking plastic bags is hardly enviro-crime of the century. Also that comments about how it's "sad" that I prioritise carrying food I have paid for home in bags rather than piling it on top of my fucking head over baby seals, and that supermarkets getting extra money out of me for using plastic in a perfectly reasonable way, is finger wagging bullshit and so coming up against that I can do likewise. We can all point the finger at each other because everything we do has an environmental impact. It's not helpful in the slightest though.

@lazyarse123 does the money go to charity then? In your shop, i mean.

Plastic is used to cover foods like broccoli to help them last longer on the shelves. Without it, we could be looking at tonnes more food waste = methane as the food rots = worse greenhouse gas than CO2.

So unfortunately, in some case, plastic does have its uses. And recycling plastic bags (or anything) also uses up resources - it's almost the last resort before dumping them in landfill. Refuse / reuse / reduce / recycle...

Paper bags also take up more resources to make than plastic, given the single use nature of paper bags.

But I don't know where the 'extra' money is going to either - maybe worth contacting Sainsburys to find out? And I agree, there is still too much 'other' plastic being used in stores.

That’s ok SmileEachDay

berwicklad yes it does, sorry it's a co-op.

I nearly always take my own bags
On the other hand I work for a local charity and we applied for funding from the co op community fund - which decides where their carrier bag sales go
It raised us £4000 which has allowed us to provide support to carers of people with dementia in our local area for a year

OP so is your issue that 30p profit (or 30p less production costs) per plastic bag for the companies? Or the fact that theres a charge altogether?

Yeah it's the profit. That it's dressed up as environmental concern just makes it worse.

Given that supermarkets are doing fuck all to reduce their environmental impact in other areas.

In aldi the pre packed bananas are cheaper than the loose ones many things prepacked are cheaper than loose I'm sure that's wrong and it used to be the other way around