5p Charge for all carrier bags in Wales

welshman10

How are they going to play this on the self service tills?

I asked the guy on the checkout tonight and he said he didn't have a clue....

hurricanewyn

When I was in Dublin this summer, on the self service tills they had the bags with the person supervising all the tills. Each one had a barcode in the corner, and you just scanned like the rest of your shopping

girl_withno_name

welshman10 wrote: »

How are they going to play this on the self service tills?

I was also wondering this!

hurricanewyn wrote: »

When I was in Dublin this summer, on the self service tills they had the bags with the person supervising all the tills. Each one had a barcode in the corner, and you just scanned like the rest of your shopping

Sounds like the staff's time could be better spent to be honest... :think:

jackyann

CHRISSYG wrote: »

why not buy one of those small bags that can fold down into almost nothing and keep it in your pocket/bag for when you impulse shop .

to be really green: http://www.morsbags.com

or to be fairly green:

http://www.onyabags.co.uk/

Rowan9

Gigervamp wrote: »

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

Think it's starting in Scotland too. I'm sure I read about it/ heard it on the radio.

jamespir

i agree with the principal but 5p is a rip off they are only 3p in lidl and much better quakity

Fair_Play_2

*zippy* wrote: »

Even McDonalds have to charge for their paper bags. I really don't see whats to complain about to be honest...

You've made two conflicting statements there. The main problem with forcing takeaway outlets to charge is that bags can't be re-used for COOKED food without cross-contamination. In other words: GERMS that could make you ill. This is especially the case with McDonalds, where several fries nearly always fall out of their cartons into the bottom of the bag. You then pick them out with your fingers and eat them. This could be resolved by McDonalds switching to sealed boxes for their fries, like they use for their burgers. Then they could safely be put into any bag - no matter how old. (That would also stop the fries from going cold before you get home, which is always a problem!) But McDonalds have said nothing about this. Re-using bags for cooked food is just DIRTY anyway, no matter how the food is wrapped.

The other problem is that takeaways, more than any other item, are very often an impulse buy. Many's the time when I've decided to grab a burger and/or fries after a drunken night out with friends - without planning to do so beforehand. Will I now have to carry a bag in my trouser pocket the whole evening, just in case I decide to have a takeway at the end of the night? That's just excessive, isn't it. It's ridiculous!

The third problem is that customers handing over their own bags, of varying shapes and sizes, just doesn't fit in with the way that takeaways, especially the large chains like McDonalds, operate. If you visit any McDonald's on a Saturday afternoon, you'll see what I mean. It's so busy and noisy at that time that the only way for them to guarantee efficiency is for all the cogs of their well-oiled machine to be turning smoothly and at full speed. If staff are having to contend with unfamiliar bags being thrown at them left right and centre, there will be confusion and delays. When the restaurant is busy, the person filling your bag is not the same as the one who took your order. You give your order to a lad (or lass) at the till, and then step to one side so he can serve the next customer while you wait for your order to be carried out by another lad further back - whom you often can't see, or not very clearly anyway. If Lad B has had a dozen different bags thrown at him by Till Boy, how on earth is he supposed to remember which bag belongs to which order?

Expecting people to re-use their own bags for takeaways is simply unpractical, unrealistic and unfair. I'm very surprised that McDonalds in particular are going along with this nonsense. As a global corporate giant, they could easily tell a pathetic, puny little government like the Welsh Assembly where to stick it. No doubt they and the other big chains (including supermarkets) would do just that, IF the profits were going to WAG. But because they're going to charity, I suppose they see it as a way to enhance their philanthropic image without having to actually do anything... despite insisting publically that they are against the idea as it will penalise their customers (especially those on a low income) at a time when we are all tightening our belts.

I don't think it's right that clothes shops should have to charge, either. Clothing is also frequently an impulse buy, and how much you buy is extremely hard to predict - it all depends on what fits you and what doesn't!!!

I live in Wales and I'm not looking forward to this law at all. I think it will hit men more than women, as they do not carry bags as a matter of routine. (I predict a rise in the sale of 'man-bags' - not that you can fit much shopping into those. They're only good for small items.) It will cause conflict at the tills; abuse of staff by customers will soar. There may also be increased suspicion of shoplifting, if people are carrying lots of bags around with them in shops. I definitely think this one of the Assembly's dafter ideas. It just goes too far. Their "one size fits all" approach indicates that they don't seem to have thought it through thoroughly. If the rest of the United Kingdom copies Wales, I hope they will implement the scheme more fairly and sensibly.

I'm all for looking after the environment. I started recycling 20 years ago, long before it became trendy - let alone compulsory. I have no problem with supermarkets charging for all their bags. Indeed, I've been re-using my old bags when doing my weekly shop for several years. It's no trouble to do, provided I use a trolley and not a basket, because I can stuff all the bags into one big bag and attach the latter on to the trolley handle - meaning that I don't have the inconvenience of having to carry a load of empty bags around the shop with me, and putting them down whenever I want to touch something.

But clothing and department stores shouldn't have to charge. And cooked food should definitely be exempt, on hygiene and food safety grounds. I don't think small (independent) shops should have to charge either, as it could well damage their trade.

Ironically, it could lead to an increase in litter during bad weather, if empty bags are snatched from people's hands by the wind!!

And whatever anyone says, so-called "Bags for Life" do not last for ever. So whatever we do from 1st October, we will all - at some time or other - have to pay something for the privilege of being allowed to carry the goods we have bought.

The bureaucrats who are soon to take away one of our oldest of freedoms are "worse than the Gestapo" (as my grandmother, who lived in German-occupied France, always exclaims with a sad sigh, whenever an erosion of civil liberty is on the horizon!).

Ben84

Plastic bags are in most ways unimportant. I believe they were originally highlighted as examples of how we consume and waste resources, probably because they're the one disposable item almost everyone uses, but somewhere beyond being a reminder about the wasteful ways of modern life that gets people to think, the whole idea became absurdly literal. Plastic bags are now environmental enemy number one and must be stopped! Or something like that.

However, any serious consideration of the subject shows that they have remarkably little effect on the environment. Even someone who consumes them with abandon and never reuses them is unlikely to end up with more than a few hundred grams of plastic at the end of the year. In comparison to the typical household waste this is a tiny fraction of the total. Further still, household waste is a small fraction of what actually goes in to landfill, it's about 9%. I just can't get worried over a tiny fraction of a small percentage of what goes in to landfill. The energy and oil that goes in to making them is similarly modest too.

So, good example of what's wrong with how we consume resources, but not actually the root of the problem and not worthy of the disproportionate fuss being made over them. The government and local councils who join in with the plastic bag fuss are just going for easy greenwash really, which frustrates me. They could do far more meaningful things to help the environment.

*zippy*

Fair play I think you missed my full stop, I don't eat Mcdonalds so have no feelings on it tbh, until my daughter mentioned it I hadn't considered they were included because the bags were paper.

Sainsbuys were announcing instore yesterday that their bags for life will be 5p, I asked a member of staff and she said they are removing all their thin bags.

I see your point Ben, but I suppose every little helps and other areas of waste are trying to be tackled to. I'm a bit dissapointed to be honest, 5p for a bag for life is a good buy and I can't see it making a difference to people who already don't take their own bags. I was talking to a customer this week and apparently in Ireland bags are 15p so thats why its made such a difference there. Yesterday everyone wanted a carrier for the smallest item so think they are stock piling :rotfl:

no1catman

jamespir wrote: »

i agree with the principal but 5p is a rip off they are only 3p in lidl and much better quakity

It's currently nil for Tesco bags, and pay for it in Lidl (or pick up a box) - for 3p as you said. I think you'll find when the minimum amount regulation comes in it'll be 5p everywhere.