5p bag charge - your views

chaos2

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

For people worried about cross contamination from raw meat here is a tip

Buy a 5p carrier or bag for life to ensure it is fresh
Put meat in it
When you get home take out meat and write an R on it in black pen in big letters
R means raw meat and then just use that bag in the future for your raw meat - no cross contamination
If bag breaks - rinse and repeat

I usually get 2 clear plastic from the fruit section and put the raw meat in those bag as they are not chargeable and if the cashier mention just to say it is a bit wet and they tend to take our answer.

N9eav

My original post on this was that the 5p bag is a great idea and using the tougher grocery bags is a better way to bag up your purchase anyway. I am sticking with that, but


I went Christmas shopping on Saturday. Bought a nice expensive clothing gift for someone. NO BAG.


I guess I forgot that clothing stores will charge too. As a bloke I don't carry a shopping bag around town either.


Seems odd to me that a designer store would want you to take your item away in an ASDA bag produced from your pocket instead of soaking up the 5p and calling it advertising.


I mean imagine in London if you walked out of Harrods with your purchases in a Selfridges bag.


Groceries I can understand, but a nice designer paper bag, I cannot. The whole point of some bags is advertising as opposed to having a handy transportation device

Norman_Castle

Seems odd to me that a designer store would want you to take your item away in an ASDA bag produced from your pocket instead of soaking up the 5p and calling it advertising.

They are not allowed to pay the 5p and give you the bag for free. Were you offered a bag for 5p?.

jon81uk

N9eav wrote: »

I guess I forgot that clothing stores will charge too. As a bloke I don't carry a shopping bag around town either.

Seems odd to me that a designer store would want you to take your item away in an ASDA bag produced from your pocket instead of soaking up the 5p and calling it advertising.


Groceries I can understand, but a nice designer paper bag, I cannot. The whole point of some bags is advertising as opposed to having a handy transportation device

By law they have to charge you the 5p for a bag, unless it is paper, so for most designer paper bags they can offer you one for free, but they don't have to.

N9eav

Norman_Castle wrote: »

They are not allowed to pay the 5p and give you the bag for free. Were you offered a bag for 5p?.

Yes, I had to take it as I had nothing else to carry a dressing gown back to the car in the rain.


Just thought, the days of seeing shoppers with a variety of designer bags could be over? I live in the countryside, so I have no idea what the big high street looks like these days with shopper bags? Has there been much change?

movilogo

It is all about making money.

If it were bad for environment just ban them altogether.

Or supermarkets should provide free paper bags.

Doom_and_Gloom

movilogo wrote: »

It is all about making money.

If it were bad for environment just ban them altogether.

Or supermarkets should provide free paper bags.

People say about the paper bags but I just don't see how it could work in this country.
Holland and Barrett have paper bags and I found it to be useless as soon as it rained. I had two tins of tofu and a jar of miso paste and as soon as the bag got wet it wasn't fit to carry those items. Thankfully I wasn't carrying the bag but had it placed on my lap as I was in my wheelchair. This happened despite having an umbrella!
I just always have that in my head when paper bags get mentioned. I imagine someone with one or many bags of groceries and England being England it rains. Even with an umbrella chances are the bags won't hold up.

By the way of course plastic bags are bad for the environment. The process of making them and how long they take to degrade are big issues. Also you must never have worked dor a supermarket. I do and before the charge people would demand a bag for just one or two items that could have been put in their bag or even pocket. That and the constant double bagging, even for things that didn't need it. Ontop of all that you then have the damage to wildlife as animals use them for nesting, get caught up in them and so on.
Reusable bags that last for years and can be washed are the answer. My partner and I have been using reusable bags for at least 8 years. The same bags have seen us through all that time and will easily do another 8 years, but most likely more. If you wanted you could have some wipe down bags instead of washable, we have a few of those as do my parents; these are bags bought in EU countries well over a decade ago and still going strong. You could even use a cooler bag or box as again you can wipe clean these.
Honestly it's not that difficult to always have bags on you. I've been called organized by customers but I'm not. I just got in the habit long ago to put my shopping bag back in the handbag I always use. Even my partner has a bag or two in the bag he takes to work more often than not now.

KxMx

Paper bags stop plastic getting into the environment. But are very harmful in the amount of gases they produce during production and decomp. They are not some magic green alternative.

System

KxMx wrote: »

Paper bags stop plastic getting into the environment. But are very harmful in the amount of gases they produce during production and decomp. They are not some magic green alternative.

Not sure if I mentioned this. Some councils won't accept paper bags in your paper recycling. It's all to do with the glue and with the bags from posh shops, the stuff that gives the bags a sheen and the handle isn't made from paper.

MysteryMe

Got a free cotton shopping bag from Waitrose this morning, they are giving them to people who use their pick your own offers. Nice quality too, got a colour image of bunch of bananas and look OK.