Why is it ok for Asda to charge 5p per bag to "save the environment" but then sell 4 peaches in a plastic punnet?

[IcingOnTheCake]

Asda now don't have their plastic bags to hand anymore, you have to ask for them. I'm guessing this is so you will buy a reusable one for 5p each. Fair enough, i take my own bags but it's nice that people are being made to think about reusing bags.

On the other hand, this is the same company that sells 4 peaches in a plastic punnet Not to mention all the other products they sell in unnecessary plastic packaging.

So why is it that they care so much about saving the environment when it comes to carrier bags, meaning they can charge 5p per reusable one (nice profit there) but they don't seem to care so much about the environment when it comes to marketing their other products?

This is not exclusive to Asda, all the supermarkets are at it. I can't help but think this is one big sham to line their own pockets.

I totally agree. The amount of plastic stuff is wrapped in is really, really obscene. It makes me very, very

m&s is even worse, they put bread rolls in plastic trays inside the plastic bags for some reason and they now charge for carrier bags! but i guess every little helps

Yep, it's all a marketing ploy IMO

After doing my weekly shop at Asda, my kitchen bin is half-full of all the plastic packaging which is doubly annoying as non of it is recylclable.

It is rubbish, but then all supermarkets are rubbish.
Give them up and smell your clean conscience

If i could find a good butcher, i could boycotte supermarkets altogether. They piss me off so much. It scares me that kids are gonna grow up thinking that fruit and veg are supposed to be ALL the same size, shape and colour with no dirt on!

Totally agree - it stinks.

Another way of making money.

I don't have a Nector card but i was reminded the other day in Sainburys that if i had a Nector card, i could have had 4 points for reusing my bags!

I felt like saying, "So if i bring back all the wasteful packaging to you that i have had to buy, do i get "Nector" points for that too?"

Some veg box farms/companies also do meat boxes.

Icing on the cake, we get our meat online from Riverford. It's free range and organic and comes from a farm in Hampshire I think. We get the small meatbox (only DH eats meat so it keeps him going for ages).

Very good point, Icing. I hate this anti-plastic bag thing. They are perfect for me because I walk to the supermarket, doing far less environmental damage than the other 95 per cent of people there. And I haven't found a single product that is as perfectly adapted to the purpose. Other bags are too big/cumbersome/awkward etc. etc. etc. I recycle all my carrier bags so I am doing very little harm and object to being portrayed as some kind of villain so supermarkets can make fat profits out of selling carriers.

it's just jumping on the 'save the planet' bandwagon

Yep they are totally jumping on the 'green' bandwagon.

Don't get me wrong I am all for green issues (actually feel really strongly about them) but these company's piss me off when they try to make out they are thinking about the environment.

It is so patronising

P.S I hate bloody Asda.

theressomethingaboutmarie, i live in Dorset so i'll look into that Thanks.

edam i agree. Why are we, the public, being made to feel and look like the villians when we are forced into buying our weeking shop in countless packaging. Alot of which can be sold loose or in recyclable packaging.

I really feel this is an issue that needs raising.

I feel like writing to these supermarkets or he local paper and raising this issue!

i think that supermakets should have bins where you can put your waste packaging and they have to get rid of it.

I have the same conversation every week when i go shopping on a saturday. I pick up 2 leeks and a pepper i don't want to use a plastic bag to throw out when i get home. Yet when i get to the till they always want to put them in abag. I don't want a bag.

I agree might be worth contacting local paper.
You can usually just email a letter i have done previously about asda and they printed it and contacted asda who left a reply.

I don't think the packaging issue is a new one. This has been going on for ages but Supermarkets just don't do anything about it.

You can buy most stuff loose these days. I only buy veg in the packets when I really have too.

Also did not buy any Easter egss in those huge packets this year.

I know it should be up to the suppliers etc to stop this, however us consumers have massive power. If we stop buying it, they will soon change their ways.

I was going to post on this a few weeks ago when M&S started doing it but I thought I'd get flamed! The way they put themselves out there as being eco friendly by charging their customers for plastic bags was awful! I can see the smile on Stuart Rose's face when someone suggested they charge for something that they used to give away for free just as we are on the cusp of a recession and at the same time get brownie points, genius!!

I do actually use re-usable bags when I go shopping but it still has really annoyed me the way they have done this when they still insist on ridiculous amounts of packaging throughout the store! Why don't they put their money where their mouth is and invest in 100% biodegradable bags and just encourage people not to use them like offering incentives like discount vouchers when you re-use your bag? Because, as we all well know, they don't care about the environment that much that they would actually take a cut in their profits to do their bit but if it means making a few pence more then they're all for it!!

edam - I have a backpack for shopping, and 80% of stuff goes in there. I agree that carriers are great if you're on foot, but I use far fewer since getting a backpack.

I thought this all came about because the government said they were going to charge the supermarkets if they didn't reduce carrier bag use (could've got that wrong though.)