Paying for Carrier Bags?

[serenity]

I got into work last night (Croydon IKEA) to discover that we've started charging for carrier bags (5p a go, but the reuseable blue ones have gone down to 25p) The aim is to cut our bag useage down from 32 million pa to 12 million, the profits will also go to some local forestry charity. I think it's great (although I'm quite shocked they've done it with no warning), but some of the people I work with were quite p'ed off about it, feeling that if IKEA wants people to shop there they should provide the means to get their purchases home. I think this is shortsighted tbh, and I really believe that it will only be a few years before the Government brings in a bag tax, similar to that in Ireland, so we're going to end up paying anyway!

I'm just curious as to how other people will see it. Good or bad idea? Is it just going to add to the stress of shopping there?

I think it is a great idea and they should have done it YEARS ago.

I reuse all my bags, either for more shopping or for bin liners at home.

When I was in Canada, ALL the shops did this, and iirc Ireland brought it in recently.

I did see in the paper that IKEA were going to do this.

x

I've only been to IKEA once but do my grocery shopping at Aldi where they charge for carrier bags. I just keep a stash in the car and think it's a v.good way of cutting down on waste. Tesco online will take your carriers back for you too.

It's a good idea as long as the money goes on the environment. I'm from Ireland (although I live in the UK) and it has worked brilliantly over there. Almost everybody uses reuseable bags and it's a thing of shame to buy plastic bags . The enthusiasm that this principal has been embraced is one of the things that makes me proud to be Irish!

Ace idea.

|I don't understand why the major supermarkets don't do this anyway. It would also be great if they cut down on all their ridiculous extra packagin on fruit and veg.

But initial results from Ireland are suggesting that overall use of plastic bags isn't reduced by this because people buy more bin bags etc. for use around the home instead of reusing the store supplied ones.

IKEA and B& Q have been running pilots in Central Scotland for about a year now I think.

Very true mazzystar. I recycle as much as possible and buy loose fruit and veg but I'm still shocked that we almost fill a wheelie bin each week. It drives me mad to find packaging inside packaging - completely unnecessary.

That's interesting Gomez. I have to say that I tend to use my plastic bags as rubbish bags too, for things like the bin in the front room and the bathroom bin.

I'm not sure how it would work with online shopping either. My Tesco shopping comes in ridiculous amount of bags, with only 1 or 2 items in each one. I'd be irritated if they then charged me for that, barring that, I do think all stores should charge for bags.

Living in Ikealand, sorry Sweden, you have to pay for all plastic bags in supermarkets too. Recycling is top notch here, you actually get penalised for not doing it. You are billed yearly for the weight of your refuse collected, so it is in your own interests to recycle as much as possible.
There are recycling bins everywhere, and for just about everything, so there is very little excuse not to. When we lived in England we would fill a whole wheelie bin everyweek, this has now reduced to a half.

Our community council also collect all your leftover food, paper towels, coffee filters etc..

Why not all get string bags? they stretch miles and fit loads and loads of stuff in - up to 40lb i think withouts snapping - ok you have to pay for them but they do look nice and they last for ever, well maybe not forever but years and years and you never have to have a carrier bag again.

sadierhianne

On the whole I think it's a good idea, because it involves the shops themselves. Most of the time recycling is seen as the consumer's responsibility instead of holding producers and retailers to account. I'd love to reduce the amount of stuff I throw away but even though I recycle as much as possible and always carry cotton bags for shopping, I still find myself with a bin full of plastic just because of the amount of packaging that manufacturers use. The other day I saw cucumbers in the Coop that were both shrink-wrapped and in a sealed plastic bag - ffs.

Rant over. Thank you.

when I go to Asda I use new bags, however I very rarely go to Netto - but when I do I always take bags, without fail.

IMO a great idea, I am the most forgetful person around and if I can do it than IMO anyone can!

As a little aside, does anyone use the home delivery? I have never seen such an appaling waste of bags! Last week I got single bags for ham, tights and flash type wipes ie only one item in a bag what a horrible waste

It's always a race in Sainsbury's to grab my 6-pints of milk and put it back in the trolley before the cashier puts it in a bag...

I never noticed plastic bags in IKEA. I always put my small things in paper, or bought one of their sacks - which would go on to become beach bags for us.

I think you have to be sensible about packaging though. It's not all bad - it protects the product. If the product gets damaged, this is a bigger waste than a little bit of packaging.

Ikea seems to me like a successful anti-consumerist protest on a huge scale. Shopping there is so intensely unpleasant, that I'd keep my furniture for years, or make new stuff from recyclde carboard, rather than go there again.
Thus I find malice a more probable motivation than the environment for charging for bags. My cynical mind tells me this is a cost saving exercise.

If Ikea was interested in the environment then they'd do stuff like when you bought stuff, load it into your car, and design more of their packaging with handles etc so that you often did not need bags at all. Do we see this ?

Charging for bags in supermarkets where nearly everyone knows what you're doing might make some sense.
But most Ikea shoppers are irregular, and thus won't think to bring their own bags. Also Ikea gear is not suitable for most bags being heavier and with more points than supermarket shopping.

Agree with sadierhianne, string bags are fab (but have mislaid mine ) - I also have 2 of sainsburys smaller version of \link{http://www.lakelandlimited.co.uk/product.aspx/!20660\bottle bags}, and 2 of \link{http://www.lakelandlimited.co.uk/product.aspx/solutions/shopping!2155\these} (only mine are bright blue and yellow, not nearly so pretty) and 2 Sainsburys big strong plastic shopping bags with cloth handles - between the 6 of those I can cart a trolleyfull into the car (and thus justify buying new binliners )

"If Ikea was interested in the environment then they'd do stuff like when you bought stuff, load it into your car, and design more of their packaging with handles etc so that you often did not need bags at all. Do we see this ?"

Yeah, that's the problem, most things that will go in a bag don't even have their own packaging but just a label... so, should they introduce packaging for everysingle product so bags can be avoided?

\link{http://www.lakelandlimited.co.uk/productlist.aspx/solutions/shopping\All the Lakeland baggy things}

You don't need bags for the furniture at Ikea, you need them for all the "but it's only a pound!" little gadgets and doofreys you pick up on the way round.

They should hand out string bags (with barcode obv, at c £1 a time) at the start of the yellow brick road - that would do it.

I think it's great.
I also keep big stash of carrier bags in my car and use them for all my shopping (although try to avoid supermarkets.)
I can't stand throwing stuff away,although I suspect we throw away way less than most people.
I feel sick when i throw something large and plastic away.

If I do go to the supermarket,I take a plastic crate and put that in the trolley.
Easier to get stuff into the house like this anyway,rather than wrestling with a million bags.

I get my groceries from ASDA via the internet and when they deliver my shopping the shopping is packed into lots of unecessary bags. they put only 2-3 things in each bag. I always find a use for them but I'll bet there are loads of people who don't.

I think that was one of things they're finding in Ireland with their tax - that people are buying more bin bags or nappy bags for all of the things that they used to use carrier bags for.

My gut feeling is that if we had to pay for bin liners rather than use free carrier bags we'd be more conscious of using them, and hopefully use fewer. But maybe not.

I not is is an "aim" to make the reduction. I do love "aims". RailTrack has them as well.

The numbers look impresseive but of course bags are thin things, (guessing) they're about 5 grammes each, Ikea is saving about 100 tonnes of plastic per year.
That's a good thing (if it happens), but is a terribly small % of Ikea's output of waste. Not saying they're better or worse than other furniture stores, but I'm suspicious that they've found a way of getting you to pay for their marketing through a charity.

Being a hard line economist I assume that this will reduce demand, but very little.

just come back from france and found that the suoermarkets where we were just don't provide plastic bags at all.you HAD to take your own bag.one of the shops had left over cardboard boxes by the door but that was it.great idea.
i hate it here when the cashier insists on putting items(normally already packed in plastic)in a seperate plasyic bag all of it's own.grrr