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.

My New Years Resolution in 2018 was to never buy another carrier bag again.

I have kept it (Other than covid when my click and collect came in bags because i had no choice and didnt want to enter the super market)

I literally always have tiny foldable ones in my back pack and coat pocket for small unplanned purchases, and always take my bags for life into the supermarket.

Other than some lovely fancy tesco ones (eg hungry caterpillar, toy story, which i have bought because I love and want the bags) I have not bought any more than my tesco "big green bags" and "small green bags" which I have used continually since before I was even pregnant with my 13 year old!!!

It's become a habit and it saves an awful lot of plastic.

I keep bags for life in both cars.

Same as i have a trolley pound on all my key rings and swimming bags so never need a pound coin for a locker or trolley either

Sooo it's still okay for YOU to buy a bag, but nobody else...

I'm not sure why you're so cross about people buying bags WHEN YOU BUY BAGS.

its like complaining about the welfare of chickens whilst eating 'just the one' caged egg

Who's the stupid one again? Remind me 😂

Yes it is. If it's damaged, the supermarket will replace it. They are the original bags for life.

That is true

I try to use the soft fold up fabric bags for clothing

If necessary I would buy one

Nah, I'll keep buying bags. I have nowhere to store them in my tiny bungalow and I don't have a handbag. Like hell am I going back out to my car to find somewhere in there to put them when it's difficult enough to get in the house with shopping while navigating a wheelchair.

Plus they're nice and thick, so come in very handy for the disposal of cat litter.

Because I don't have a car. I use bags for life but once you have used them 20+ times for heavy shopping while walking 20 minutes the bags tend to go. Therefore I buy new ones. We all don't have the luxury of just transporting the bags between trolley and car, some people actually use them as bags. I'm sure replacing a bag every 20 shops is far better for the planet than running a car.

Well, from your posts, it sounds like work in retail.

It is rather bizarre that you are complaining about people buying something that is on sale.

Maybe time for another job.

I wandered onto Mumsnet tonight when I should be going to sleep and glad I came across this thread first. What a weird rant! 😂

Did not realise there was a bag police and for some reason, they’re more annoyed at people’s seeming lack of efficiency rather than the environmental impact of multiple plastic bags.

I often forget to bring my bags with me, kick myself as my bags are sturdy, comfortable to carry and just one is big enough to fit in a whole weekly shop…unlike the crappy plastic bags.

But I have serious issues with executive functioning and memory which results in chronic forgetfulness and disorganisation. That I made it to the shop and got everything I needed is a win, regardless of whether I have to get plastic bags yet again.

Glad to know someone is watching and judging me for it, though. Reeeeeeally comforting.

I still can't understand why people don't realise they can wash bags ...

It's the bag police! 🤣 I always remember for my big weekly shop but often forget otherwise but I'm tight so I'll just carry things awkwardly in my hands!

Yes. I keep my car key separate from the rest of my keys and will keep the other keys in the car so I'm just carrying my car key and my phone. My card is on my phone and I never carry cash.
The only time I take a bag now is if I am going somewhere where I know I can read e.g. a coffee shop, and then I can take a book.

The only time I thought washing bags was actually sane, was during Covid.

I work at next , only about 5% of people bring bags with them then complain they have to spend £1.50 on bags because they but so much shite .. total bonkers!

When I took my DC to an aquarium earlier this year there was a tank of jellyfish. So beautiful to look at. Next to the tank was another tank of jellyfish also beautiful. Except the second tank wasn't jellyfish - it was shredded plastic bags that had been taken out of the sea locally. Turtles eat jellyfish. Turtles eat plastic bags that look like jellyfish. The turtles will then die a slow painful death if they eat enough plastic and that is the tip of the plastic bag iceberg. There really is no excuse for not taking bags with you when you go shopping. I always say to customers - carry your own bags and save a 🐢

It's PPs claiming the reason to buy bags is so they have a clean one for their beans or new clothes. Because the old ones had a potato in it or whatever....

I'm just saying bags can be washed very easily, so it's a poor excuse from them.

@MothralovesGojira the issue with plastic in the sea....who is putting it in the sea?
Not me. My bags either go in designated bag recycling points or will go in the landfill rubbish that the council collects.
If everyone deposed of their plastic in the ways they are meant to (recycling or general rubbish) and those whose job it is to then recycle/landfill/burn/whatever they do is done correctly then no rubbish should be in the sea.
But unfortunately many people don't get rid of their rubbish properly (why?) so it's a vicious circle.

I mean, that’s totally rude but you crack on!

@Needmorelego
No, it's not me misdisposing of my bags either. I keep a bag of shopping bags next to the front door for when I go food shopping, keep a fold up one in my handbag/pocket and I use compostable bags for everything else. I'm not an environmental nut at all but I really despair of how many plastic bags I have to sell to customers although the bags we do sell are compostable. Bring your own bag is not a new thing as the OP points out but sometimes it is really depressing.

I agree with this. I do my job of disposing of my rubbish and recycling correctly and have done my entire adult life. It’s not me dumping it in the ocean, it’s who evers job it is to dispose of the rubbish that is dumping it. It really pisses me off when the consumers get blamed, if it wasn’t available we wouldn’t buy it and when we buy it most of us dispose of rubbish correctly, so how is it still our fault.

I take my knackered plastic bags to Tesco, where they send them off for recycling.
I am not stood on a beach and yeeting bags into the sea.

If a cashier told me to carry my own bag and save a turtle, I would be telling them (in my mind) to fuck off and stop working for some huge company that has more of a negative impact on on climate change than I ever will.

Why on earth are plastic bags still available in stores? Where I live they were phased out years ago and if you buy a bag when shopping it is paper. Many stores still give you a (free) bag if you want it, but supermarkets charge for them.

I wish more places did paper/cardboard bags

Just keep increasing the price until the morons learn, IMO. A fool and their money are soon parted.

If they want to keep buying new bags at £2 each because "it doesn't hurt my pocket" then fine, supermarkets are single-handledly solving an issue with the redistribution of wealth.

@XenoBitch that's the issue - somewhere along the link of a bag being recycled some bags are ending up in the sea (and bottles etc).
We should be able to trust that placing objects for recycling in the correct recycling bins means they will actually get recycled.