... 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?

Yep all of Morrisons prepackaged wonky veg is cheaper than buying loose veg.

I just buy stuff lose anyway with out a bag round it. I have a couple of net bags I bought online.

Fine by me

I never understood why, if it is all about the environment, shops didnt use paper bags instead....? Admittedly tricky in supermarkets where the shopping is heavier but not in other shops. Seems to work in ireland for many years before we changed in the uk

Supermarkets do fuck all to stop using plastic. They only pretend to care about plastic bags because it's the law.
Still, it's hardly difficult to bring your own little fruit and veg bag. I can't get pissed off about it.

The wonky veg thing is paying lip servicetoo , a lot of(not all) wonky veg never makes it to supermarkets anyway as is earmarked for soups, ready meals juices ect.

Yeah it's all old stuff. I don't mind wonky but I do mind carrots that are white and hard in the middle.

I think it's great that in NI where all the retailers send the funds from bags to the govt as an environmental levy, as far as I know, retailers in England claim it as their own as additional profit.
I do think it's good to charge for bags, people are definitely more cautious about paying for a bag and reuse more which is a good thing ( not for plastic bag manufacturers, though ) but environmentally it's better to reduce consumption of plastic bags.

I wish they would charge £1 per bag. People really need to radically change the way they behave. And actually I don’t care where the charge goes, the supermarkets’ pockets or charity. People just need to change!

I’ve bought 1 plastic bag since the charge started here. It’s not hard.

I do think 30p is excessive for a bag for fruit and veg - and honestly who wants a load of sprouts, grapes, cherry tomatoes and green beans floating around loose in their shopping bag? Mine would no doubt end up under 2 litres of milk or the washing powder and be a pile of mush by the time I got home.

I live abroad and we've had bags for life or a fairly steep charge for reusable bags for much longer than the U.K. so I find it fairly early to remember those. I try to store them in my car. They are quite bulky though so I'd have to change my habits if there was actually a supermarket within walking distance.

Our supermarkets have switched to (free) biodegradable bags for fruit and veg - I reuse them in my compost caddy in the kitchen and then they go on the compost heap. I don't know why U.K. supermarkets could not have tried this to avoid fleecing shoppers like the OP.

Why are loose apples more expensive than bagged ones?

I chuck loose fruit & veg in the bag & when using self scan I stick my labels to the outside of the bag in case I get stopped for a random check

Exactly what I do.

@justasking111

Some English friends even said that they would never set foot in Wales again if they had to pay for a carrier bag.

Whilst I find the OP ridiculous, this anecdote from you is absolute bull.

It has worked very well in Ireland.
There is no longer bags stuck in railings and littered everywhere.
You soon remember to bring your own at a €1 in most stores.

YANBU.

Ending free bags and bringing in the 5p charge was the right thing to do I think. Nobody likes spending money they don't have to, it's encouraged us all to use our own bags. But with the best of intentions anyone might forget or not have enough.

Some supermarkets abolished the "disposable" bags and made the 10p "bag for lifes" the minimum. Still reasonable. (Although it's been pointed out that the money paid for them is pure revenue to the supermarket, they avoid having to pass any on to charity this way.)

But now we have places like Morrisons jacking up the price. It just comes across as price gouging. If you've got to the till and realise you don't have enough bags, how many people are going to walk away without the groceries? At that kind of price, the cost of bags for a shop becomes significant. Say a shop needs 3 bags, 90p added to the cost, for a lot of people that makes a difference.

And I agree that it penalises those who are using public transport, who are generally either less well off or more environmentally conscious. Drivers can just shove everything in the boot and worry about it when they get home, and are also in a better position to choose where they shop to begin with.

Just keep old tights (washed, of course) - cut them down and knot at one end. Snip off the excess and there you go - a light bag for F&V which scrunches up into a little ball.

@BerwickLad it's not actually cheaper to buy pre-packed. It's 30p with the idea you bring it with you next time! A bag of pre-packed fair trade bananas is £1.20. I bought the same amount (including the bag!) for 97p!

We're in the middle of a climate crisis, just bring your own bags and if everyone started buying the unpacked broccoli then they'll get the hint!

14p a banana loose 78p for 7 prepacked yes it was cheaper to buy prepacked

I saw the latest iteration of bags for life in Belgium last month.....string bags, like my Grandma used to have!

After 8 years I wish cashiers would stop asking "do you want a bag?" It should be up to the shopper to ask if they don't have one. They may remember to bring one next time instead of having the option of buying one.

If supermarkets were truly behind the no plastic policy they wouldn’t have any plastic bags on offer would they? They’ve just seen an opportunity for profit.

There’s no need for plastic bags for fruit and veg - even ‘reusuable’ ones which are made from.... plastic!

If there is a choice between paper and plastic, paper wins every time for me but in truth it would be much better to just stop perpetuating this needless habit of everything needing its own separate packaging.

If there is a choice between paper and plastic, paper wins every time for me

Paper has its own environmental cost though.

Our supermarkets have switched to (free) biodegradable bags for fruit and veg

Waitrose has these. They have holes in which makes them less than ideal for use as a compost caddy bag.

If you forget your bags buy a roll of cheap bin liners and use them as carrier bags. Will be cheaper than 25p a bag.

I make it my life's work to avoid plastic bags yet still end up with a mountain of small ones. I subscribe to some magazines and buy weekend newspapers, which have bags within bags....

I use some of them for dog pooh bags (I never understand why people need to buy them when we are deluged with the equivalent) and to bag up leftovers in the pub sometimes, but still have loads left over.

The manufacture of plastic is so toxic and the fact that it doesn't degrade makes me despair. I can't understand why most people (accepting those on this forum) are so cavalier about it.

@Stupiddriver1 genius, thank you! I will definitely do that next time. And unlike the ever growing pile of bags for life I have, at least the bin bags will get used up eventually. Thanks!