5p charge for plastic bags from October 2015 to cut usage
Discussion
RYH64E said:
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.
Quite, but if HMG applied that logic (you can afford it so not exactly disastrous) to money removed from your income you'd be significantly less well off. Only scale saves the day in this case.Not making much difference so not disastrous as a principle is an equally good argument for giving away free plastic bags.
This is populist tokenism which also nets a few bob for the gov't.
ksturbobloke said:
Quite, but if HMG applied that logic (you can afford it so not exactly disastrous) to money removed from your income you'd be significantly less well off. Only scale saves the day in this case.
Not making much difference as a principle is an equally good argument for giving away free plastic bags.
If only all HMG demands were so modest, if that's all they wanted from me I'd happily hand deliver it and include a thank you card.Not making much difference as a principle is an equally good argument for giving away free plastic bags.
turbobloke said:
This is populist tokenism which also nets a few bob for the gov't.
Harmless and irrelevant tokenism, who cares?
) so I've been subjected to it for ages anyway!soad said:
Sticks. said:
I stopped at a Tesco on the way home yesterday and saw a man walking away with armfuls of shopping. All to save 5p, unless he'd been shoplifting I suppose.
Probably Scottish...I was in Bristol a couple of weeks back and grabbed a load in Sainsburys to bring back with me. I think I've paid 5p once or twice, you can usually steal them in Asda, my corner shops still dish them out free. Sainsbury's next door I just carry stuff.
I just don't like the principle of charging/taxing us to make us change our behaviours. Especially when the effect is tokenism in the extreme. I have my own forms of tokenism I give them back though.
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.
It's just considered the norm here in Scotland now.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 keep a few fabric bags in the car. Bring shopping into house, empty shopping, leave bags by the front door so I remember to put them back in car. Must admit though I would never think to take bags if clothes shopping, but don't do that very often. But I have got into the way of it for food shopping.
The reason I started keeping bags in the car, is not because I didn't want to pay the 5p charge, but because after the charge came in the plastic bags seemed to get thinner and thinner. Bag manufacturers trying to save costs perhaps? Also proper bags are far easier to pack than fiddling about at the till trying to open plastic ones.
And when i have forgotten, or don't have bags with me, 5p isn't exactly a large amount.
I have no real issue with taking the reusable stronger bags (ex bags for life ones) on a main shop. What it has stopped me doing though is picking up odds and sods I spot in my local co op I didn't intend to buy when I pop in on the way home from work to say pick up a bottle of wine. Not understanding why they just didn't switch to paper bags myself if it's so important to the environment.
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.
Follow-ups to the Welsh scheme found a net 57% reduction after accounting for the increase in bag for life usage, which suggests a benefit. HarryW said:
I have no real issue with taking the reusable stronger bags (ex bags for life ones) on a main shop. What it has stopped me doing though is picking up odds and sods I spot in my local co op I didn't intend to buy when I pop in on the way home from work to say pick up a bottle of wine. Not understanding why they just didn't switch to paper bags myself if it's so important to the environment.
Apparently paper bags are more environmentally harmful in terms of production and transport. I'm with you though. I'd prefer paper bags. Randy Winkman said:
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.
No, when you put things into your recycling you are part of the system put in place to recycle materials and reduce landfill. It's a real, concrete system with investment. A 5p bag tax is just a bit of knee jerk tokenism. Now you can put all your needlessly over-packaged crap in a bag for life, and feel as if the problem is solved.otolith said:
Randy Winkman said:
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.
No, when you put things into your recycling you are part of the system put in place to recycle materials and reduce landfill. It's a real, concrete system with investment. A 5p bag tax is just a bit of knee jerk tokenism. Now you can put all your needlessly over-packaged crap in a bag for life, and feel as if the problem is solved.technodup said:
ch108 said:
5p isn't exactly a large amount.
It'll be 10p next. Once they start this sort of rubbish they can't help themselves. See tobacco or alcohol.Not long before the bag runs to the Calais supermarkets/euromarts start, I'd wager....
A lot of the times I have been to the shop I have opted to carry stuff
I went to a DIY shop and bought loads of small plumbing fittings which I put in my pockets and then I carried about 6 items in my hards to the car - before the shop would have bagged it before giving it to me.
I reckon I;ve saved at least 3 bags this week by doing that.
I went to a DIY shop and bought loads of small plumbing fittings which I put in my pockets and then I carried about 6 items in my hards to the car - before the shop would have bagged it before giving it to me.
I reckon I;ve saved at least 3 bags this week by doing that.
If they were serious about it...
Instead of charging people to buy bags, they'd discount shopping if you did bring your own bags.
I've now opted to buying bags for life every single time I shop with the theory that I'll reuse them however in reality this doesn't happen so now I'm making more of a worse impact on the environment*.
*My assumption being that bags for life are worse for the environment in terms of initial production effort.
Instead of charging people to buy bags, they'd discount shopping if you did bring your own bags.
I've now opted to buying bags for life every single time I shop with the theory that I'll reuse them however in reality this doesn't happen so now I'm making more of a worse impact on the environment*.
*My assumption being that bags for life are worse for the environment in terms of initial production effort.
There's not a lot wrong with plastic, the universe wanted it after all 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBRquiS1pis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBRquiS1pis
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