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 read somewhere (possibly on here) that in Ireland the amount of plastic used to make bags has gone UP cos people are buying binliners etc which use more plastic cos they are thicker. Not sure if thats true or not but would be interested to find out.

Where can I buy string bags BTW ?

In Ireland - the use of thin bags is creeping up again, so there is an increase in the tax in the air. Tax is currently 15 cent (10p) a bag. A thick bag, reusable is about 30c. The main advantage to the tax is that there are hardly any free range plastic bags - in trees, rivers etc. except on a Sunday morning there are little colonies of plastic bags and lager cans around the place! So the bags that you pay for are used either for more shopping or as binbags, not just chucked. (And when I visit the UK I bring my bags home in a thrifty way). There was going to be a chewing gum tax too, but that has made way for a chewing gum industry levy to government i think.

For the record IKEA is definitely the most environmentally aware company I've ever worked for. My particular branch currently recycles something like 90% of its waste, and is trying to increase that - so far better than most stores I would say.

I'm not quite sure how loading your furniture into your car for you saves the environment?

oh yes that reminds me I must check my stockpile of plastic bags as my sisters are over soon and will probably raid it and bring a whole pile back with them

I personally like the idea of charging for bags , they're horrid and it would chivvy lazy people like me into thinking about it before going out or paying the price. I do internet shopping with Tesco for food and really like the bit where you just give them back all the plastic bags from last time. I'm a bit lazy and often forget to take bags with me when I go shopping for other stuff so try to re-use any extra one's in bins etc.
I still find we seem to throw away a phenomenal amount of packaging though - our local authority is about to move to alternate bin collections, so recycly stuff one week and other rubbish the next. I think it's an excellent thing though suspect we'll suffer as we use disposable nappies and have 2 nappy users....

Loading into your car might reduce the needs for bags, a bit.
Ikea may be environmentally better, hard to tell isn't it ?
Currently it's hard to get objective information on this, and the nature of many firms is that they'd rather spend money on looking "good" than actually doing it.
The soil association has some weird ideas, but at least they are a known quantity. One thing they have got right is not being in the pocket of the producers, as is the norm for this sort of organisation.
Thus perhaps we need outfits who can audit the impact of a given firm.
Hard stuff to do right

Dominiconnor... I think you may find the following book interesting: "Leading by Design" (forgot the author, sorry). It is out of print but you may get it from the British Library.

Although there are some dark areas in IKEA's history there are quite a good number of wonderful things, they don't do things through a charity, they are a charity. The aim of becoming a foundation was to avoid the company being taken over and the prices being raised (and ruining the social service that IKEA does to us, normal not stinkingly rich people who can not afford to spend £6,000+ getting a sofa that looks a bit contemporary).

In terms of ecologically friendly businesses and their packaging, the fact that IKEA invented the flatpack speaks a lot about them. Their first store was in the middle of nowhere, so much in the middle of nowhere that the staff spend their afternoon together preparing meatballs in case some clients were hungry by the time they reached the place

You will find great inexpensive string bags here and other stuff saving us from using plastic \link{http://organic-ally.co.uk}

or this might work better if I get the link thing right \link{http://organic-ally.co.uk}

No brain not working tonight I give up

\link{http://organic-ally.co.uk\there}

great idea!

We shop in Lidl because we are dirty cheapskates, and the fact that you have have to pay for your bags there has meant that we reuse them. I now keep a stash in the car. I have got in on the whole environmental thing in a big way recently, and have started to get annoyed with unnecessary packaging/carrier bags murlarky. We doe recycle anything we can really. It's saving us a fortune in bin bags too!!!!

It goes to show the state of my life when the most exciting thing that has happened to me all year was the delivery of my compost bin.

Thanks Chandra it really is a great website I have one of the string bags and you get loads in and the woman that runs it is soo friendly