5p bag charge - your views

maman

I can see the environmental point of cutting back on bags. I'm happy to take reusable bags for my shopping and haven't needed to buy any yet since the ban came into play.


BUT


For people like me who reused all the free bags as bin liners for my (designed for use with carrier bags) kitchen bin, I'll now have to buy liners when the saved bags run out. How is that environmentally friendly?

Norman_Castle

maman wrote: »

For people like me who reused all the free bags as bin liners for my (designed for use with carrier bags) kitchen bin, I'll now have to buy liners when the saved bags run out. How is that environmentally friendly?

Presumably your bag use will not change but many people have never used single use bags as bin liners or anything else after their first use.

LABMAN

maman wrote: »

I can see the environmental point of cutting back on bags. I'm happy to take reusable bags for my shopping and haven't needed to buy any yet since the ban came into play.


BUT


For people like me who reused all the free bags as bin liners for my (designed for use with carrier bags) kitchen bin, I'll now have to buy liners when the saved bags run out. How is that environmentally friendly?

You could use the bin without liners as we do. Bin is washed out using washing up water after we've done the dishes.

RHemmings

I've seen loads of people re-using bags. Far more than I used to. As someone who has been re-using bags for years, I'm all for the 5p charge. Much less waste, better for the environment.

JP08

It's strange. Bought a pair of trousers in the other weekend. £40. So why did I really resent paying the 5p for the bag? 0.1% of the purchase price for crying out loud.

With many prices rounded to the nearest £ though, the 5p for a bag on top does seem to mean you end up with a lot of small change (which gets lobbed into the small change pot at home which then means next time you're out and get a bag you don't have any small change hence hand over a note and get a lot .... etc)

jon81uk

JP08 wrote: »

It's strange. Bought a pair of trousers in the other weekend. £40. So why did I really resent paying the 5p for the bag? 0.1% of the purchase price for crying out loud.

With many prices rounded to the nearest £ though, the 5p for a bag on top does seem to mean you end up with a lot of small change (which gets lobbed into the small change pot at home which then means next time you're out and get a bag you don't have any small change hence hand over a note and get a lot .... etc)

If I'm spending £40 its going on a card anyway so less noticeable. Cash is only for bars and coffee shops really.

teddysmum

Yesterday, in Tesco, I noticed that a particular large pack of tea bags included a free shopping bag . Every pack had been roughly torn open and the bag removed.

Norman_Castle

JP08 wrote: »

It's strange. Bought a pair of trousers in the other weekend. £40. So why did I really resent paying the 5p for the bag? 0.1% of the purchase price for crying out loud.

Because they were free for a long time giving them a perceived value of 0p which is why they were readily discarded.

I'm surprised how many people in supermarkets will buy 5 or 6 items then struggle to carry them all to the car without dropping them.

balletshoes

N9eav wrote: »

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?

i live in the city, we have a street of designer shops in the city centre, at the weekend just gone i can't say i noticed much of a decrease in the number of new designer store strong paper bags being carried around the city centre.
Loving Primark being nearby too, as they don't charge for their paper carrier bags.

organic_wanabe

I live in Scotland and so am used to the charge now and have never paid it as I always make sure I carry bags with me. However, when it was first introduced here I imagined it would only be for supermarket shopping and not for clothes. Silly me! I was in Debenhams the other day and the lady in front bought a large expensive coat and asked for a bag. The assistant said that she would have to put it in one of the large bags and that would cost more. I had imagined the charge was 5p no matter the size.