5p Charge for all carrier bags in Wales

415SanFran

Have you actually tried the paper bags from the US.
The whole thing takes up your whole arm, if you get a lot of shopping it is really hard to carry more than two, as they have no handles.
Keep them over there I say!
I object to paying for a bag with the store name all over it.
Why should we have to pay for their advertising.

clemmatis

The plastic bags can be recycled. Supermarkets have collection points for them and online delivery drivers will pick them up and take them back to the shop. No supermarket plastic bag I have goes to landfill, unless of course I use it as a bin liner, in which case, as the council won't take bags like that for recycling, it will end up in landfill with the other bin bags...

*zippy*

Where I work the money is going to charity, each store was able to put forward a charity they wanted to support, their only preference was it was environmental so we picked a local wildlife hospital. I would think most of the big companies at least are doing the same.

There will be a few upset about it no doubt, but I've not heard anyone complain in advance and we have had plenty of warning so quite a few customers are already bringing their own. Hopefully it will reduce the numbers being given out further and for those who would rather pay it will raise some money for charity. Even McDonalds have to charge for their paper bags. I really don't see whats to complain about to be honest, 329 million bags given out just in supermarkets in Wales is mad, it will be interesting to see what that drops to.

Gigervamp

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

This is crazy - are they not making profit enough? I feel that they should encourage people to use their own bags by offering more than 1 reward card point - something like if you use your own bags for 10 shops you get a conditional spend voucher or something like that.

zenseeker wrote: »

Tesco do this.

The bag charge applies to all shops, not just Tescos.

Also, I noticed a sign at Tescos the other day saying that they're going to be stopping the green clubcard points for reusing your bags once the 5p charge comes in.

crumblepie

I think its bad about the green clubcard points. I always use my own bags and now because I live in Wales and they introduce this policy I'm being penalised by not having points added. pah..... can we Walish people claim it's against some human right so we can still claim out extra points?

It's second nature to me now to take a carrier bag out with me. I tend to take a 10p 'bag for life' type bag which I use for any ad hoc purchases and I possess a big handbag! If I do a food shop I take lots of strong bags as the free carrier bags are useless.

If you don't know the idea is the 5p charge goes to good causes not company profits - we were asked and the general consensus was a Welsh charlity either Ty Hafan, Age Cymru or a local cancer charity.

Gigervamp

Well, it's only Wales for now, but it is being implemented across the UK at some point.

Middy

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

This is crazy - are they not making profit enough? I feel that they should encourage people to use their own bags by offering more than 1 reward card point - something like if you use your own bags for 10 shops you get a conditional spend voucher or something like that. I just think that it is yet another way to put up the cost of already really expensive shopping. That said I do take my own bags as I don't want old carriers clogging up my house. Some people think that the cost of the bags is a kind of tax, but it isn't - they can't tell retailers what to do with the money so it's just pure profit increase for no more outlay as they provide the bags free anyway.

The retailers aren't making a profit with this. It will go to charity.

girl_withno_name

Middy wrote: »

The retailers aren't making a profit with this. It will go to charity.

Well... it might go to charity:

Where does the money raised from the charge go?
We can’t tell you what to do with the money, but we want it to be passed on to good causes in Wales, particularly environmental projects.
We will set up a voluntary code of practice which sets out where we would like the money to go. We hope the majority of you will sign up to this.
We know that some of you will have existing partnerships with good causes and we do not want to cut across those arrangements.

Poppy9

In Tesco today the SA said that they heard their might be a delay in it being introduced due to some issue with takeaway outlets.

I 100% reused my own bags today in New Look, Boots, Next and Outfit. I had loads of bags on me as I was at an out of town shopping centre and I was going to Tesco to food shop after a quick browse around the shops.

When I walk up town lunchtime though I only usually have 1 carrier bag in my handbag. I use it for fruit and veg from the market and don't want to use it for putting in nice new clothes as fruit and veg is usually grubby!

Clowance

In all the Walmarts in the deep south we visited this summer there was a bag carrousel and the checkout op would put only two or three items in each bag. I was horrified and I'm not even particularly green. Even in Trader Joes (quirky shop )in Washington we did not get brown paper bags. Also in a tiny store in the backwoods - still plastic.