ASDA Carrier Bags - No more freebies

Premier_2

donnajunkie wrote: »

thats nice but the whole point is to do with recycling, not raising money for charity. the answer is to give money back when people hand them back for recycling. just like they used to do with soft drink bottles. i am sure that would solve any issues and everyone would be happy.

I do agree with your sentiments to an extent, but I'm not sure the Woolworths plan is to raise money for charity, rather to imply that any profit they make on the carrier bag sales does not increase their own profit.

But note the wording, "any money made". A bit like M&S who I think only give up 1.5p of the 5p charge they make (again, I guess profit on the sale). So whilst the sales of carrier bags may not be producing a profit in their own right, it does reduce overall costs of the stores, so would increase the store's overall profit.

I don't think giving money back on bags will help particularly. In days gone by, the deposit scheme on soft drinks bottles was viable because the used bottles could be washed & reused. I think the part of the reason for the demise of the deposit scheme, other than the introduction of lower cost disposable packaging, was the introduction of more stringent regulations on health & safety so preventing companies from simply washing and reusing old bottles.

Whether for similar health & safety concerns, or simply the non-acceptance of the public to pay for a carrier bag that has already been used, I really don't think a deposit cheme for carrier bags will work.

I guess you could argue that the carrier bags returned could be recycled not by direct reuse, but by recylcing the material to create new carrier bags (just lile the same could be argued for glass). But sadly this is often not economically viable, and in the case of plastic carriers may not be technically viable. Carrier bags are often made from low grade plastic, perhaps already containing a significant percentage of regrind. There comes a point where plastic becomes such poor quality, it really cannot be recycled into new products.

As an example, I went to a large municiple recycling depot yesterday to dispose of some garden waste. I had used plastic (bin) bags to transport the gargen waste to the recyling depot. After having emptied the contents of the bags into the appropriate skip I was looking for a specific place to put the bags. Despite there being numerous places to place specific items that could be recycled (e.g. glass bottles, shoes, clothing, paper, cardboard, etc) the guy working at the site said plastic bags needed to go in the "items not suitable for recycling" skip as there was no one interested in taking away plastic bags.

I accept that there is a need to reduce carrier plastic bag consumption, but I think the only way stores pursuade us to do so is either by charging for those bags directly (which clearly is not popular with a lot of public at present) or by offering an incentive to not take a carrier bag. i.e. to offer money off either directly or via loyalty points (such as Tesco green points). This shouldn't necessarily cost the store anything to implement. It simply gives back to the customer the value of the 'free' carrier bag that the store would otherwise required to pay for if the customer elects to take it.

I also think much more should be done by supermarkets and other big chain stores to put pressure on suppliers to reduce unnecessary excess packaging.
When I look at the contents of my bin at the end of the week, the vast majority of the contents is either excess packaging or the junk mail that gets stuffed through my door. Has anyone else been away for a month and found like I have that you can hardly open the front door because of the mass of junk mail, advertising flyers, etc piled up behind it :eek: . It's only when you see it on this scale, as opposed to the daily couple of items, that you realise just how much junk is pushed through your letterbox.

Carrier bags make up a very small percentage of my rubbish bin's contents, and the percentage it does make up is because I have used the carrier bag as a bin liner in the kitchen. If I didn't have carrier bags to use, I would be buying purpose made plastic bin liner bags and throwing those away.

Chocmonster7

avstar wrote: »

can't believe how many people are complaining about the loss of free (but useless) carrier bags.

Personally I re-use Morrisons carrier bags in my pedal bin. When free bags stop then I will have to buy bags for it which means that companies will still be making bags and the supermarkets will still win as I will be spending more money! :rolleyes:

donnajunkie

junk mail should be made illegal if any government is serious about the environment.
as far as plastic bags not being good enough quality plastic for recycling. well i dont know about that but i would say that i am sure i have seen things trying to get us to recycle our plastic bags. so they must have some appeal to someone.

oldMcDonald

donnajunkie wrote: »

junk mail should be made illegal if any government is serious about the environment.

I'm sure that I must get the better part of a whole tree pushed through my letter box each year in the form of junk mail. I filled in all the MPS forms online almost a year ago, but it made no difference, the postie still delivers more junk than mail

Anyhow, our local ASDA still had free carrier bags out on the tills when I popped in last night, but most people seemed to have bought their own and were loading those up. I rarely go into ASDA and the green side of me was pleased to see everyone bringing their own bags

I didn't see any bags for 70p, though There were 5p bags everywhere, and some fabric ones that were more expensive (can't remember how much), but no 70p ones.

[Deleted User]

As a sorta-related thought, Orange Shops are giving up plastic bags from around 1st July - paper bags all the way.

stuhere

what are they going to do on the automated tills if ya using own bags machine is going to struggle

donnajunkie

all the bags for life i have seen arent exactly secure. they dont close up at the top so anything in paper packaging will get drenched when it rains. if you are in a crowded shopping area it will be easy for thieves to steal out of your bag.

madmaxine47

donnajunkie wrote: »

all the bags for life i have seen arent exactly secure. they dont close up at the top so anything in paper packaging will get drenched when it rains. if you are in a crowded shopping area it will be easy for thieves to steal out of your bag.

Thats why its probably better to take your own bags, after all its not the shops responsibility to keep our shopping secure or dry.

Clowance

went to a small Tescos in Sandymount Dublin this week, they seem to have stopped giving out free bags over there too.

Jazzy_B

They started charging for bags in Ireland a couple of years ago.