5p charge for plastic bags from October 2015 to cut usage

[soad]

5p bag charge: Asda shopper BANNED from store after attempting to carry shopping to car in basket
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/5p-bag-charge...

[Ste1987]

This all makes me glad I don't work for Asda anymore!

[Hol]

Its funny (or not) but I remember being in Aldi a few years back where some woman with £20-30 of shopping wanted (in an argumentative manner) to take the basket out to her car, rather than buy a 3p (at the time) plastic bag.

At the time I thought she was just some weird nutter as Aldi have always been a pay-for-your-bag market.

But these are the sort of people who have a problem returning a supermarket trolley unless there is a pound involved, so it would be tragic if supermarkets had to remove all the baskets - just to stop a minority of self-opinionates leaving them under the next cars wheels or taking them home as trophies.

[matchmaker]

hornet said:

This (and Bake Off...) have been the hot topic in the office over the last few days, and some of the complaints are hilarious. It's really not difficult to take a bag to the shops, and in the event you forget, 5p isn't going to kill you. There's also a certain irony in moaning about a 5p bag charge when you've just £7 on an Itsu lunch, but maybe that's just me? Thing I found interesting is that when asked, none of the people moaning had read the Policy or any of the reports on the experience of the Welsh scheme. Just seemed to be moaning for the sake of it to be honest.

^^This. I usually carry bags in the car. If I forget - 5p isn't going to bankrupt me!

[colonel c]

I have no practical issue with the charge. However I wonder if there is any real benefit environmentally. All the so called 'bags for life' are made from much thicker plastic so will take considerably longer to decompose and they must require considerably more energy and raw martial to make in the first place.

[bitchstewie]

I have a decent bag in my car which I once forgot to take into Lidl.

I didn't think twice about trying to walk out with my stuff in the basket as I was simply going to go to my car and put it in the bag - security guard thought otherwise though and stopped me.

In some ways I get it as I can understand that they must get people try and nick the baskets, but it also seems slightly overkill.

[Westy Pre-Lit]

Coming home tonight I must say I did notice a noticeable difference in the cleanliness of the streets and surrounding areas of the supermarkets.


To be honest I didn't see any shopping bags anywhere which isn't really out of the norm, what I did notice was shopping trollies and wire baskets dotted all over the place. One basket had even found itself in a tree about 1/2 a mile away which bought a chuckle.

[alock]

I'm so pleased I don't visit supermarkets anymore.

From reading this thread it appears that half the customers are the sort to complain about a 5p bag charge, and the other half enjoy feeling morally superior to the first half.

[turbobloke]

alock said:

I'm so pleased I don't visit supermarkets anymore.

From reading this thread it appears that half the customers are the sort to complain about a 5p bag charge, and the other half enjoy feeling morally superior to the first half.

Won't somebody think of the hired help

[Randy Winkman]

Once people have eaten the food, used the bog rolls and put all the glass/paper/cans/plastic bottles in the recycling, how much rubbish have they got left to put in these bags anyway?

[turbobloke]

[jmorgan]

Randy Winkman said:

Once people have eaten the food, used the bog rolls and put all the glass/paper/cans/plastic bottles in the recycling, how much rubbish have they got left to put in these bags anyway?

Yeah, but it is a start. Went to one well know supermarket and capsicums were shrink wrapped!

[otolith]

colonel c said:

I have no practical issue with the charge. However I wonder if there is any real benefit environmentally. All the so called 'bags for life' are made from much thicker plastic so will take considerably longer to decompose and they must require considerably more energy and raw martial to make in the first place.

It doesn't matter, it's a token gesture.

[The Mad Monk]

funkyrobot said:

First 'victim' of the scheme:

http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/business/busin...

What happened in the end?

Edited by The Mad Monk on Saturday 10th October 08:46

[Randy Winkman]

otolith said:

colonel c said:

I have no practical issue with the charge. However I wonder if there is any real benefit environmentally. All the so called 'bags for life' are made from much thicker plastic so will take considerably longer to decompose and they must require considerably more energy and raw martial to make in the first place.

It doesn't matter, it's a token gesture.

Every time I put something in my recycling bins instead of the waste bin it's a token gesture. But if I also limit my use of plastic bags and just generally produce less waste in the first place, and if loads of other people do it too ...... it helps.

[Trax]

Smollet said:

For the sake of 5p or taking a plastic bag with you when you go shopping there aren't half some right bellends here. If you've seen the damage plastic bags do to the environment and you still bleat about this new law you're either very callous or very thick. Yes the regs need tidying up and clarifying but the basic idea of getting rid of these bags is sensible.

That's not the problem, well for me that is. I re-use the plastic bags for bin liners. Now I will have to buy some cheap black plastic ones, which may or not be worse for the environment. I am guessing they are less biodegradable. But the shop brands won't be seen, just a black bag, so that keeps someone happy somewhere.

And as I always forget the bags in the boot, I will still end up buying them anyway. Seems like no one wins to me.

[eccles]

Trax said:

Smollet said:

For the sake of 5p or taking a plastic bag with you when you go shopping there aren't half some right bellends here. If you've seen the damage plastic bags do to the environment and you still bleat about this new law you're either very callous or very thick. Yes the regs need tidying up and clarifying but the basic idea of getting rid of these bags is sensible.

That's not the problem, well for me that is. I re-use the plastic bags for bin liners. Now I will have to buy some cheap black plastic ones, which may or not be worse for the environment. I am guessing they are less biodegradable. But the shop brands won't be seen, just a black bag, so that keeps someone happy somewhere.

And as I always forget the bags in the boot, I will still end up buying them anyway. Seems like no one wins to me.

Most of the black bin liners are made out of recycled plastic.

Seems to me like your trying to put up all sorts of crap reasons why you'll be inconvenienced by this new charge.

[bitchstewie]

Trax said:

That's not the problem, well for me that is. I re-use the plastic bags for bin liners. Now I will have to buy some cheap black plastic ones, which may or not be worse for the environment. I am guessing they are less biodegradable. But the shop brands won't be seen, just a black bag, so that keeps someone happy somewhere.

And as I always forget the bags in the boot, I will still end up buying them anyway. Seems like no one wins to me.

If you know you'll end up buying bags anyway then you don't need to buy black bags or have I missed something?

Not being funny but some of the excuses being peddled here are just funny, I get the same at work, any mention of change, however small and insignificant in the scheme of things, and people are doing the whole "the sky's falling in" thing.

Just use less of them, and reuse the ones you have, it's not hard.

[RYH64E]

I had a wine crisis last week so had to do some emergency shopping or face a dry lunch, it cost me £0.15 for bags which worked out at £0.025 per bottle, not exactly disastrous.

[Benbay001]

I also use my carriers for bin liners.
My nan has them off me for her bin.

Tesco have made their standard bags much thicker. So now everytime i buy a bag it uses twice as much plastic, yet still holds just as much of my nans waste before its full.