... 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?

They should cost a quid and be really shit. That's how to stop people buying them.

I notice the OP hasn't complained about the cost saving that's been passed on to the consumer !

Don't be so naive! Of course the cost savings haven't been passed on to the consumer

But it makes sense. It stops people from using them. I don’t use plastic bags for loose fruit/veg most of the time anyway but I happily pay 10p for a plastic bag which goes into the bin as soon as I get gone for lack of a better option. I wish they’d do biodegradable bags here.

Self service tills = never pay for a carrier bag unless its M&S where they dole them out like gold.

Seriously, I haven't paid for a carrier bag for years and get several a week.

They make great bin bags.

I remember a time when most people did re-use plastic bags; as bin liners, lunch bags, when I went swimming/did PE at school my kit or muddy trainers were in there. If not fit to put anything else in it was re-used as a bin liner till it literally fell apart. I don’t know anyone who used to use them once and chuck them away. They then started to make the bags really thin and crappy so you were lucky if they’d get your shopping home without tearing. My friend left her local Asda and had a bottle of wine smash before she’d even got to her car as the bag couldn’t take the weight. Her dad went in and demanded a replacement bottle.

A few years ago I was helping my DM decorate her Christmas tree, she brought down some decs in an Asda bag that was around 20 years old. It was thick, sturdy and hadn’t disintegrated at all and had been in use for all that time. People would re-use if the bags were better quality and were designed to be able to fit pedal bins etc. The Sainsbury’s and Superdrug ones are dreadful as they don’t open out enough and the small ones that some shops use for make up are next to useless as too small to be used for anything else. So now people buy bin liners/lunch bags, just swapping one thing for another.