Wales to introduce 5p carrier bag charge....

[Wacky Racer]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15122462

Good idea in principle or a step too far?

[fulham911club]

They've been doing this in France for ages. It works - people go to the supermarket with bags (larger more durable ones). I think its a good idea. The number of plastic bags that get chucked is ridiculous.

[Puggit]

fulham911club said:

They've been doing this in France for ages. It works - people go to the supermarket with bags (larger more durable ones). I think its a good idea. The number of plastic bags that get chucked is ridiculous.

In France you can't get any plastic bags in the supermarket!

[ZOLLAR]

BBC said:

"It needs to explain and address anomalies which mean that, for example, you can have a free bag with a carton of chips but not if it comes with a burger in a box," said Bob Gordon, head of environment

Only the welsh could come up with a random rule like that
Why would a burger make it illegal to give a bag?

[rand hobart]

Excellent idea. I say that as a person who has 8 or 10 bags for life in the boot and every time I go into Tescos I forget them and end up using the free ones. If i was to be charged 50p or more it would be the kick up the a$$ I need to remember. :¬)

[Victor McDade]

Silly idea imo. As someone who recycles his carrier bags to use for rubbish I'll now buy more proper bin bags and thus it will be worse for the environment. I'm not giving 5p to a supermarket for something which costs next to nothing.

[odyssey2200]

Not watch the sales of bin liners go through the roof.

Net result = fk all.

[FourWheelDrift]

Victor McDade said:

Silly idea imo. As someone who recycles his carrier bags to use for rubbish I'll now buy more proper bin bags and thus it will be worse for the environment. I'm not giving 5p to a supermarket for something which costs next to nothing.

Same here, they are perfect for pedal bin liners.

[EDLT]

I only skimmed, but who keeps the 5p, because I'm pretty sure plastic bags cost the retailer less than that.

[ZOLLAR]

EDLT said:

I only skimmed, but who keeps the 5p, because I'm pretty sure plastic bags cost the retailer less than that.

Retailers are being urged to pass the profits onto charities. whether they will is another story..

[Welshbeef]

Kwiksave always used to charge for bags back in 1994 and did until Somerfiled took them over and thenCo-op took them over.

I recall being at the Checkout. The disgust from customers that we charged for bags - even though back then it went to charity. Plenty did buy bags though and I remember the huge amount of people who would turn them inside out and make a point of telling me that they wouldnt be advertising the Kwiksave stores.... like I cared or had any impact to it.

Kind of helped pass the day. I used to come up with barmy ideas to Fox them re the bags again purely for my humor.

[Swoxy]

In calculating the 'profit', the retailer can't deduct the cost of the bag, only the admin cost of charging for it. Also, the Government have indicated that if retailers don't give the money to charity, the Government will legislate to force them to do so.

[FourWheelDrift]

Welshbeef said:

Kind of helped pass the day. I used to come up with barmy ideas to Fox them re the bags again purely for my humor.

Turning a bag inside out taping it inside a normal bag so it's double sided?

[Funkateer]

Make a point of using Sainsburys bags at Tescos, Morrisons bags at Asda. That'll learn 'em!!

[ZOLLAR]

Swoxy said:

In calculating the 'profit', the retailer can't deduct the cost of the bag, only the admin cost of charging for it. Also, the Government have indicated that if retailers don't give the money to charity, the Government will legislate to force them to do so.

Shame as that could generate quite abit of revenue for retailers, I hope I've done this right but google says 32billion plastic bags used a year in uk at 5p (0.05) would equal £1.6 billion, assuming the usage of bags doesn't go down of course.

Please correct if wrong

[freecar]

It's a shame that most supermarkets switched to biodegradable bags years ago though!

[Prof Prolapse]

Good idea. That'll finally give me an incentive to remember the damned "reusable bags".

[BigBob]

FourWheelDrift said:

Victor McDade said:

Silly idea imo. As someone who recycles his carrier bags to use for rubbish I'll now buy more proper bin bags and thus it will be worse for the environment. I'm not giving 5p to a supermarket for something which costs next to nothing.

Same here, they are perfect for pedal bin liners.

Sits back and waits for some marketing guru to rename them bin liners and give one 'free' with every bag of shopping ................


BB

[TheBear]

Done this here in Guernsey for the last 2/3 years or so and it's worked well. I don't have an issue with it apart from when it was introduced and I kept forgetting the bags.

I've used the bags many more times than I would've if they were free. When they're worn through the supermarkets will replace them for free(only bag for life).

I realise now how wasteful I was when they were free.

[Talksteer]

There is a reason why retailers can afford to give these bags away tor free. The bags cost a minuscule amount to make and a minuscule amount of resources to do this.

A bag for life costs substantially more and despite the tag is unlikely to last more than a few years of use before being chucked out too. On a per usage basis bringing your own bag is not likely to be cheaper or environmentaly more sound especially as the disposable bags are biodegradable and the bags for life are not.

In short this is illogical tokenism.