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

[Pesty]

Those of you with bags for life. How on earth do you remember.

Do you when emptying whatever you have bought take the empty bags straight back to the car?

I tried I'm just not organised enough to always have one when needed. Often I go shopping on impulse and I'm not always in the car so I would have to carry them around with me all the time.

Do you have man bags or something with them in. Honestly how do you do it?


This for me has nothing to do with made up global warming. It's just common sense not to waste. I'm not against it at all just wondering if you guys really are fighting the good fight or pretending that it works for appearance sake.

Also as mentioned above packaging is much worse and should be addressed.

Edited by Pesty on Thursday 6th August 11:05

[jmorgan]

Pesty said:

Those of you with bags for life. How on earth do you remember.

Do you went emptying whatever you have bought take the empty bags straight back to the car?

I tried I'm just not organised enough to always have one when needed. Often I go shopping on impulse and I'm not always in the car so I would have to carry them around with me all the time.

Do you have man bags or something with them in. Honestly how do you do it?

I do get caught out, but in the grand scheme of things not often. I usually take a small rucksack to town, copes with most shopping where I have to carry it home. Always have done that anyway, don't see the point of struggling back with fingers turning blue, bag handles stretching and breaking etc.

[arp1]

Non story, this happens already anyway.

It really changes your mindset as well, especially when on holidays, being offered bags willy-nilly and instead of automatically saying yes to a bag...

[otolith]

I wonder what percentage the bag makes up of the mass of packaging in a typical bag of shopping.

[wobert]

Pesty said:

Those of you with bags for life. How on earth do you remember.

Do you when emptying whatever you have bought take the empty bags straight back to the car?

I tried I'm just not organised enough to always have one when needed. Often I go shopping on impulse and I'm not always in the car so I would have to carry them around with me all the time.

Do you have man bags or something with them in. Honestly how do you do it?


This for me has nothing to do with made up global warming. It's just common sense not to waste. I'm not against it at all just wondering if you guys really are fighting the good fight or pretending that it works for appearance sake.

Also as mentioned above packaging is much worse and should be addressed.

Edited by Pesty on Thursday 6th August 11:05

I have a alarm system in place to remind me.

I leave them in the hall by the front door. They get put back in the car when the wife has nagged me sufficiently to do so.

[Trax]

Jinx said:

Just means I'll have to buy (non) biodegradable bin liners. Not sure where the win is in this situation?

Same here, we re-use the bio-degradable bags as bin liners, will now have to buy ones that will not be. Great win for the environment......

[RizzoTheRat]

My Mrs is greatly in to heavier duty bags for life and the like, but I tend to use cheap carrier bags for all sorts of other things. All my clothes get packed in them when biking/camping to stay dry, boots/shoes go in them when packing in another bag, etc. The thicker bags are rubbish for this.
I also always forget to take bags with me when I go the supermarket

PurpleMoonlight said:

I've been grabbing an extra half dozen bags each time I visited the supermarket for the last year now. I have a nice little stockpile.

They seem to be designed to degrade fairly rapidly these days, I've got things that I put in plastic bags and stored in cupboards or boxes (so it's not UV doing it) where the bag has completely dissintegrated

[XJSJohn]

fieldl said:

We have the same policy here in Hong Kong it was introduced a while back for Supermarkets and then everywhere earlier this year. I must admit it's been a great success I rarely use plastic bags at all anymore. Only when I forget, or when I pick up something I didn't expect. Annoyed me at first now its normal. Just to use for carrying to the car is a forgotten luxury, only in that I don't use a car.

Was just over in Honkers for the weekend last week, and we noticed this, it drove us mad .... pop over 20 7/11 for some beers, crisps and magi mee, and they didn't even have any bags, so there i was with an armful of "groceries" (mostly beer and crisps) trying not to drop everything from mid levels to god knows where!!

[Smiler.]

This might have already been answered, but how is it policed?

Is the average corner shop included?

FTR, I'm not against it.

[Camoradi]

Welshbeef said:

Options
1. the plastic bag for life at 10/20p

I'm not ready for that sort of commitment

[jmorgan]

Smiler. said:

This might have already been answered, but how is it policed?

Is the average corner shop included?

FTR, I'm not against it.

Everyone included.

I suppose there are mystery shoppers and council do gooders out on the prowl. Not heard of anyone going to the big house over it though.

[Hoofy]

[redacted]

[oyster]

Jinx said:

menguin said:

I agree entirely. It is annoying paying the best part of £500 to tax a car based on its emissions when you look at what happens in China & India. I still believe that doing something is better than doing nothing, though. There just has to be a line drawn somewhere - of course it would be more beneficial to the environment to ban all products from China but that might cause some other issues

Like putting in all the sink plugs on the titanic huh (though things like renewables are more akin to buying gold plugs for the sinks)?
The "must do something" only placates your own conscience and does nothing to address any real problems - and frequently the "doing something" merely causes more problems than it solves (the law of unintended consequences always applies).
The solution - determine what the actual problem is and develop a fully costed solution - not merely "do something" - and take the precautionary principle and shove it where the sun don't shine.

Except in this case of a 5p change on plastic bags there are no losers.

Well except for forgetful people.

Which is brilliant - a tax on being dim.

[Otispunkmeyer]

OpulentBob said:

menguin said:

Or should we just do nothing, because China are building so many coal power stations each week our efforts pale into insignificance?

I know you're trying to make a point through sarcasm, but this IS a valid thing. For every bag of recycling I fill, there are half a billion people in China and India chucking their rubbish behind the house, burning tyres, and drinking "keep trade unfair" coffee.

As an extra tidbit here I remember reading Heathrow were proud of reducing their "carbon foot print" by reducing CO2 by 11,000 tons or something for the year. China, being so rampant in coal fired powerstations, undid that whole years worth of CO2 saving in the first 17 minutes of the year. Honestly, if CO2 = GW (and I am not sure it does) pretty much anything we do will more then be eclipsed by just one country. China. And thats before you add the rest like India.

Its like reducing the weight of the titanic (as its filling up with water) by throwing a deck chair off the top. i.e. fking pointless unless you plug the hole.

[mybrainhurts]

Digger said:

Take a Bag For Life back to the point of sale and they'll replace it.

Didn't know this option was available. I divorced mine.

[MarkRSi]

As mentioned a million times already it's already in effect in Scotland and works well.

Good job as my drawer was pretty much overflowing with carrier bags despite using them for rubbish etc. when I can and some were decomposing before I got a chance to use them again!

[mybrainhurts]

Blib said:

At M&S, 'large' plastic bags cost 5p. They've been doing this for ages.

They will now cast 10p

[soad]

Smiler. said:

This might have already been answered, but how is it policed?

Is the average corner shop included?

FTR, I'm not against it.

Local authorities will enforce the regulations; although retailers that operate across multiple local authorities will only have to deal with one authority under the ‘primary authority scheme’. Local authority inspectors will be able to visit stores at reasonable times and make test purchases, and will be able to question staff and demand relevant documentation if they believe a breach of the regulations has taken place. Retailers may be issued with fixed or variable fines if they do not charge at least 5p for the appropriate bags, do not keep or supply records or mislead on how they are complying with the law. They may also be required to publicise that they have broken the law.

The new regulations will apply to businesses with 250 or more full time equivalent employees, and will require them to charge for bags and submit annual compliance reports for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Smaller businesses will not have to charge, but will be encouraged to do so voluntarily. Once retailers have deducted reasonable costs, it is expected that they will donate the proceeds from the charge to good causes as is already the case with similar schemes in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2015/april/engl...

[mybrainhurts]

bga said:

From a purely selfish POV this would be annoying. We use carrier bags as refuse bags at home & work.

So do I.

The wheelie bin is going to stink if I don't bag everything up.

This is nothing more than Cameron taking advantage of odious greenfreaks to increase his tax take.

Very depressing to see so many greenfreaks within these pages....

[Otispunkmeyer]

RizzoTheRat said:

My Mrs is greatly in to heavier duty bags for life and the like, but I tend to use cheap carrier bags for all sorts of other things. All my clothes get packed in them when biking/camping to stay dry, boots/shoes go in them when packing in another bag, etc. The thicker bags are rubbish for this.
I also always forget to take bags with me when I go the supermarket

PurpleMoonlight said:

I've been grabbing an extra half dozen bags each time I visited the supermarket for the last year now. I have a nice little stockpile.

They seem to be designed to degrade fairly rapidly these days, I've got things that I put in plastic bags and stored in cupboards or boxes (so it's not UV doing it) where the bag has completely dissintegrated

Rapidly? half the time the plaggy bags tesco give out are spent by the time you've walked them to the car and all the contents have burst out all over your car boot!

Sage point made earlier by another poster about what percentage of the packaging is made up by the plastic bag on a typical shop. The rate at which our wheelie bin for plastic fills up is astonishing. Maybe they should be leaning on the packaging manufacturers to lean out the amount of packaging. Of course, lots of money in packaging....