Say NO to plastic bags

piggydude

We use the plastic boxes that Sainsburys used to sell, and which fit in certain of their trolleys. We have six of them and four 'bags for life' which will take a week's shopping for our family.

An advantage of these boxes is that they stack in two columns of three in the boot of our little Vauxhall Agila, and also they keep some of the more fragile stuff from getting squashed.

I don't know why Sainsbury's stopped selling these boxes, as we've been using ours regularly for the last five years or so and find them to be excellent.

Fire_Fox

Sledge wrote: »

so...

why does everyone have this big issue with carrier bags?

I've studied peoples responses extensively, and just wondering what people on here think.

For me, because it's an easy change to make. Each bag may be only a little bit of plastic, but I would use 6 to 10 a week for our supermarket shop plus sundry other when purchasing on the high street. Over the course of a lifetime, that's a lot of plastic!

Many changes you can make to become 'greener' do involve either some extra expense, a time committment or some reduction in quality of life. Carrying a bag when heading to the high street is easy and costs nothing, and taking sturdy reusable bags to the supermarket is actually beneficial - they never break and the handles are nicer!!

If I need carrier bags to transport my recycling (we have no collection) or to put in a pedal bin I use the odd ones that I acquire when occasionally making a high street impulse purchase (tut tut) or ask family/ friends if they have any spare.

noahsarkfamily

At my Coop they have stopped giving out plastic carriers and you can buy'a bag for life'
for 10p. It's a shame they don't do something about the plastic they give to us in packaing etc. If we took it back to them and made it their problem, I'm sure something would be done Jules

tarranty

Try onya bags, they're made from a parachute type material and last for ever, they also fold away into a pouch the size of a keyring.

jetskidia

tarranty wrote: »

Try onya bags, they're made from a parachute type material and last for ever, they also fold away into a pouch the size of a keyring.

So what shall I use in my bin then?

afterglow_2

i take a bacpack everywhere i go on my bike and never need to use carrier bags, and im not driving a car round to do shopping, which seems like double standards to me!!!!

LittleVoice

noahsarkfamily wrote: »

At my Coop they have stopped giving out plastic carriers and you can buy'a bag for life'
for 10p. It's a shame they don't do something about the plastic they give to us in packaing etc. If we took it back to them and made it their problem, I'm sure something would be done Jules

Well, at least they sell "naked" cucumbers - no plastic covering on those sold by the Co-Op.

hannamint

hey guys. i love the fact that some of you kick off so much about shops forcing bags on you. Where i work, we charge for bags, and this upsets quite a few people. We dont profit from the carrier bag sales, as it goes to the woodlands trust. but for those of you who say that plastic bag waste is minimal, to you i say, every little helps, and if you think for your weeks shop you might take around 10 carrier bags. add up how many people are in the store doing the same thing, then how many stores are in your town, then towns into countys, countys into countries, bllaaahhh etc. It adds up, and if we can cut down then we should. and to the lady who wouldnt accept the carrier bag from the textile place... i salute you! What an awesome response to someone so stupidly ignorant to think that you MUST take a carrier... pffft.

ps, when i do need to take carrier bags, i reuse them for my rabbits because they make a lot of mess, then my dad takes the mess and puts it on his compost.. then... he has the bags.. probably makes something out of the ordinary for his allotment, so no landfill for my bags as far as i know.

pps, stop arguing, it's not worth it. we all do what we do for reasons that make sense to us. we don't have to justify each thing in a forum. :-)