People still buying bags when shopping

[Auburngal]

It's 8.5 years since the bag charges were introduced in England (Oct 4 2015) and longer for other parts of the UK. My friend's DS was born on that day and she has pointed out he was born on the same day bag charges were introduced in England and people are shocked.

Why do people still not come shopping without bags? See the same faces most days at work buying bags. "Left the bags in the car" - pack at the car then!

If people buy on average 10 bags at 30p each per week at supermarkets, shops like B&M, Poundland - that's £156 a year. People don't look at the price as a whole they think "its only 30p".

Then see people down my road using brand new carrier bags for rubbish. Bin bags are cheaper (per unit), bigger and able to tie them up properly.

Then my work is opposite a few other shops - see customers buy two items and buy a bag from us when they have room in another shop's bag they just purchased from. What's that about?

The number of times I have bought bags is in single figures. For example - buying a coat - none of the bags I had were big enough. Brought 2 bags with me and one broke - it wasn't the retailer's bag in question. So couldn't get the replacement free.

Please stop buying bags. Fold one up inside your handbag. I am ok with those who bought more than they intend and don't have room in their own bags they have brought with them.

Taking your own bags is a simple way to help with CoL.

Just got back from m&s and realised I bought eight bags. Was a spontaneous shop but their bags are paper. There's no way I'd have ever thought stepping over the threshold 'I have no bags with me'. I live in the country and I drive about 5 mins on a motorway to get to the big ega store where I needed to collect dinner, I hope nobody judged me for buying them! ( I'm joking I don't actually care if they did )

You either need to get a life or an education to qualify you in something useful or a new career.
It was a huge shift in consumerism when supermarkets stopped handing out free plastic bags to 66 million people every single day.
It was not popular, but it was successful.
And for some reason the UK could not switch to paper carrier bags like the US? Why was that?
Apologies, but you sound like one of those clueless Just Stop Oil muppets, who are not really sure what they're fighting for or how to balance it with the real world or what changes can be brought in or how to get people on board.
You just whinge and criticise and navel gaze and not have any real answers. No game plan for how the world could change. Just bleating and whinging and having temper tantrums because the world does not work like you think it should. Stamp, stamp, stamp. Huff, huff, huff.

You could take another bag out with you like a canvas bag, big supermarket bag or fold up one and put the paper bag inside

You had me at the double negative ‘Why do people still not come shopping without bags?’

If they don’t come shopping without a bag, they have a bag?!

I agree with you though but most people need to buy them occasionally. Buying ten a week is nuts!

Respectfully, what does it have to do with you whether people take bags or buy them? Mind your own.

@suburburban most of the time I do. I actually have a waterproof shopping trolley ("granny trolley" style) that I use a lot.
It's just annoying really that some shops will provide a bag if needed - but that bag isn't actually fit for purpose.
I'd rather pay for a decent quality plastic bag (that will be used many times over) than have a paper bag that falls apart before I have left the shopping centre.
I would like to see better recycling facilities for the plastic bags though.

Yes fair enough

There have been documented cases in the USA of meat carried in reusable bags, and then the bags transferring bacteria to fresh vegetables and people becoming sick from.later eating the fresh food. Some people may worry about that, and not want to bother washing their bags between uses. Reusing bags to carry food can raise a hygiene issue--not an insurmountable one, but one which some may not want to deal with.

I don't live in the UK, so no, I'm not shopping at Primark or Waterstones! The bags here are reasonably sturdy - after all they need to be able to withstand heavy groceries, and most of the other stores use similar bags. If the bags you get can rip so easily then they need to use stronger bags! I've yet to have a bag fall apart due to rain. Having said that I don't use them often as I carry a bag with me most times I go out and always have a small backpack with me.

If you are walking around a large shopping mall you are not exposed to the elements - malls are usually covered surely?

Incidentally, I just walked through a supermarket car park. Everyone I saw going in, or out, was carrying their own bags. It's astonishing that the UK are still using plastic bags.

@IloveAslan why did you say I must experience a different type of rain to rest of the UK if you don't actually live in the UK?
By the way I said "shopping mall" as a figure of speech. Depending on where I am shopping this may be an inside shopping centre, outside one or a "high street" (which is outside). Most places I shop are actually outside - where it rains 😂
Primark must know their bags are crap because if you buy lots they always double them up 😂

OK late to thread.
Yes I buy a bag if I need one....this is not 10 per week.
It's when I forget
Yes I had one in my handbag....then I used it. And It didn't go back for at least a week/month/5months.
Yes I had some in my car....then I used them.

Sometimes you just have to pop in on your way somewhere.

What I really like are the paper bags clothes shops use now.
What I object to is paying for a paper bag, or a compostable bag when the bag charge is meant to be for plastic.

Once I have the bags I reuse them.....why shouldn't I use a carrier bag for rubbish (I have 25 in my house collected over last 2 years) instead of buying a new bin bag ?

Supermarkets aren’t selling the thin single use bags anymore. They’re now selling bag for life style, and people are buying lots of them. If that’s how they want to spend their money that’s one issue, but they seem to forget that we are supposed to be trying to save the planet by creating less plastic :-( it takes years to go. Filling the world with plastic makes me very sad.

Because, honestly? When there’s alllll these shops full of mass produced rubbish from China (b&m, home bargains, the range etc etc) that’ll be in landfill by the end of the year. Then I’ll bloody well buy a paper bag if I need one! Only place I’ve been recently that had plastic was JD and I reckon the chavs would be furious if those bags werecl changed to paper! (How would they get their books to school?!).

I order a lot online as our local city centre is full of povvo shops, lots of homeless druggies & then immigrants from a hotel lurk about all day. It doesn’t feel safe. All my online orders come in plastic bags, the items are individually wrapped & the mailing bag. So it makes no difference.

How do you feel about all the fast fashion outlets? Primark etc, full of mass produced rubbish.

Then the cheap shops like b&m, the range, home bargains etc…. Endless plastic rubbish that’ll end up in land fill.

The plastic bags at the end of the journey are the thing that the gov has us worrying about /taxed for, but we’re allowed to fill them with plastic tat and it’s okay!

@Ohgollymolly I find this "cheap shops like B+M and The Range" a strange concept. To me they are just a shop. A normal shop selling normal things.
If I want to buy a new washing up bowl, new curtains and new quilt cover - where am I meant to buy them?
They are the shops that sell them - and (to me) at normal prices.
(also those items I would use until the literally fall apart - I have had the same curtains for almost 25 years. They are faded and thin now so I need new ones)

I always have a fold up bag with me but sometimes I buy more than expected and need to buy a bag. If I'm having a planned trip to a food selling establishment I take extra bags. I don't drive though so I feel that the environmental impact of buying a bag once every few weeks is cancelled out.

Me too 😉

How do you feel about the environmental impact?

I'm much the same

I try to only buy things to replace things now if possible and try nit to buy too much tat

SINGLE-USE is the key here. People are now buying multiple ‘bags for life’ every time they shop (because places like Tesco often no longer sell the single-use thin ones), which wouldn’t fall under this statistic. It’s not quite the win that your quote would suggest.

I haven’t owned a handbag since I was about 13 and had one to fit in with other girls. I don’t particularly like carrying things in my hands if I can avoid it so will always use either a tote bag or backpack. My phone, AirPods etc go in pockets or in summer if I’m wearing a dress without pockets, I use a small crossbody bag.

As for the point about plastic bags in the shops, I try not to buy them if I can avoid it even if it means carrying piles of shopping back to the car. Sometimes it’s unavoidable though so I’ll buy one and I do reuse it.

I imagine it’s because it negatively impacts the planet that we all live on.

And yet we would not be all judgey about someone who nips out in the car to buy a non essential and ends up damaging the environment more than one bag which was already made and exists if anyone buys it or not

You asked what it has to do with anyone else - I answered.
It’s not an either or situation - we can be concerned about the amount of plastic bags being bought as well as other, bigger environmental issues.
Also - the ‘bag already exists’ because people buy them, so more are made to keep up the supply. If people don’t buy them, they don’t make more, so by buying a bag this person has just told Tesco or whoever to make more bags.

Oh, so just to clarify, you're saying you never fly then?

Because, if you do, you really aren't in a position to condemn all the other ways people pollute the planet.