Say NO to plastic bags

orangetan

Hi, You know those fold up orange shopping bags that they are now selling in Sainsbury's - Has anyone seen them anywhere else, do any other companies make them, can you buy them on the web??

catherineblack

My friend's mum often shops in Aldi and Lidl, she buys the extra large black bags and fills her shopping with them - then she uses them later on for the main bin. Great idea if you forget to take your bags along with you. I never use the lidl bags when I'm finished with them, they don't fit my bin.
You've inspired me to go and buy a cotton bag now!
Cat x

orangetan

Hi, Could we make a list of alternatives to using plastic bags, like these shopping bags you can buy. Maybe we can compile a list, with weblinks........

diddydi

Coop bags are recylable about3 years in fact - not 100 years like normal polythene bags

Gerradene

After reading this thread yesterday i refused my first carrier bag, and i now keep one in my handbag for small shopping trips.

It really annoyed me how with an online delivery i ended up with loads of carrier bags, now it annoys me even more and i will be handing them back (about 6 months worth) to the driver of my next delivery!

gromituk

Online deliveries are notorious for loading you down with carrier bags, because they are loaded with the utmost speed (by a paid picker rather than an unpaid shopper) with no regard for the environment.

Frugal_Goblin

Just as annoying is the supermarket checkout person who 'helps' you with your packing and uses new bags - several times I've wrestled my shopping from them or tried to give them the bags I am re-using, but it doesn't always work. At least they've stopped trying to put stuff from the fridges into smaller individual white bags as well.

QueenB.

I do dislike the plastic shopping bags but i understand why they can seem the eaiser route.

However we take our own bags with us, both cotten and the bags for life, if our shop is so large we have not got enough bags on us then i will take a few of the plastic ones, then we recycle these and we always keep a few in our cupboards, either to use in a bin, or to re-use when next shopping. I have a collection of 6 plastic bags that i have used at least five times on shopping trips and hopefully will get a few more uses out of them before they get so wrecked they need to be recycled.

I always carry a cotten bag with me no matter where i am going as you never know what you will need it for.

As for the tax on bags i like the idea. When i was on holiday in Finland a few months ago several of the shops we went into charged a few pence for each bag you used. In fact they did it in a crafty way, you could get free bags but they where so flimsy you could not carry anything in them and they had no handles making them difficult to carry, so if you did not have a bag of your own then the only real alternative was to pay for one of the stronger plastic ones. I think if people had to pay for the plastic bags they used it would make them stop and think of course some would just complain but it would be a start.

carolbee

Not sure if it was my new awareness of the subject, but I was asked today in Boots if I would like a carrier bag (I didn't as I had specifically taken a shopping bag, bright pink straw one for your info!), whereas we don't normally get the choice! well done Boots.

I have got bags for life by the front door and in the car now so that I am already ready

Frugal_Fox

I have a large jute bag advertising my local farmers market. My canvas 'book start' bag, plus a new sparkly pink (well not actually sparkly!) jute one from Daily Bread in Northampton. Which is smaller and I love it! Also have cardboard wine box for bottles etc in boot. The trick is to take the bags with you!

Also - next time I'm in Milton Keynes I am off to SUST MK to get myself an Onya Bag

FF

PS - I've stopped using supermarkets in favour of local farmshops, butchers etc and its fab! First few weeks took longer and were more expensive - but now its a fab habit, is easier, much more friendly and I'm now spending LESS than when I shopped in the supermarket.