Paying for carrier bags.

Well I'm going to buck the trend here and say that, if the idea is to help the environment, save wildlife and so on, 5p is nothing like enough to charge for carriers. Plenty of people, with trolleys piled high, paying £130+ a week to feed their families, are hardly going to baulk at shelling out an extra 75p for 15 carrier bags to take it all home.
Ban the flimsy carriers altogether, and have only stronger ones at 25p each, and people might just stop and think.

I am happy to reuse bags for most things, but raw meat bags cannot be safely recycled. You can't wash them safely. Chicken breasts for example, leak furiously, and the flimsy little bags they are put in at the checkout are not sealed and are no protection. So I will have to bin these each time, and worry that they will get muddled up and reused. Why couldn't we have clearly marked raw meat and fish carrier bags from the supermarkets, that aren't charged for? I would not expect these to be collected by the dot.com delivery companies either, hazard to the drivers after they have been sitting in someone's house for a week!

I usually keep a stash of long life carrier bags in my car. I will miss having cheap carrier bags to hang on the door handle in the kitchen so as not to go out to the bin all the time. It's not that difficult to organise.

You won't get raw meat or fish in a reusable bag. Shops can put that kind of thing into a smaller bag and seal it.

I've been making these crocheted bags for friends, better make one for myself! I use cotton yarn to make them colourful. Perfect for keeping in a handbag in case you buy a bottle of wine on the way home.

If the bag your raw meat or fish is put into isn't sealed, it is the work of a moment to tie a knot in it before packing it into your bag-for-life.

I wonder how we managed to survive life with no plastic bags at all? Meat and fish used to be wrapped in a piece of white paper, then newspaper, and laid in our shopping bag. Vegetables were bought loose and tipped into the bottom of the bag - prudent people kept a bag just for vegetables so that the earth from the spuds didn't get on anything else.

And no, we didn't spent our entire lives retching with food poisoning.

I agree with anything that will reduce the plastics going into landfill. In Scotland we pay for all single use carrier bags, i.e. bags with handles, including paper ones which I don't agree with - surely paper biodegrades very quickly in our climate?

Do Sainsbury's still have those 'Bags for life' or whatever they were called? Or aren't they allowed anymore? You had to buy them but they made shopping so much easier. I had 6 or 7, I would stand them up in the trolley and as the the things came through the checkout it was easy to put all the veg in one, meat in another, booze in another etc. They didn't crumple in the boot of the car and everything was easy to put away when home.
They would have lasted for years.

I can't understand all the fuss about charging for carrier bags in England. We have had this in Wales for 4 years and it has in no way affected the way I shop. I take my 2 bags that I bought in Iceland for 99p which I have had for about 2 years. To listen to the media it's going to be the end of the world for all of you living in England

Meersbrook all supermarkets sell those. I have them from Aldi, Tesco, Sainsburys I take them with me every time.

indeed, plain daft! Mind you, metric came in in 1971 ... and some people have still not yet got over it ;)

1 lb is about 1/2 kilo - take a bite of an apple of- not brain surgery, is it?

What an awful lot of fuss and nonsense. Why should we expect free bags, why can't we all take our own bags, we all have them. If not, there are some very pretty shopping bags around. Never mind the cost of bags, it's the cost to the earth we should be concerned about. Get over it England.

We keep folding shopping bags in the car and it isn't very often we're caught out without one except when we have been for a walk locally and call in, on spec, at the supermarket on the way back. I suppose we're going to have to keep a bag in each rucksack! I don't mind paying for the odd plastic carrier bag, but why don't they do something about the plastic bags they have to put fruit and vegetables in? These are a pain in the neck and can't be recycled. Why not paper bags which could be recycled?

Here is the official advice on charging for bags -
www.gov.uk/guidance/carrier-bag-charges-retailers-responsibilities
All bags need to be accounted for and profits must go to a good cause. I can see scope for massaging figures here.

I am puzzled that it is only in supermarkets - it is in all shops in Wales. I have 3 string bags that live in the car, so always have a bag ready as I shop over the border in Wales. It has not been a problem at all and you soon get into the habit of it.

I opted for no bags for my online Tesco shopping - but they still do use bags - some for items that are substitutes and others for freezer or fridge - I think it helps the driver to identify them - but I hope we do not get charged for them, having opted for none.

I have just come back from a mini shopping spree. In JL I bought a quite expensive cardigan which I put in the old Waitrose bag I had in my handbag - if I had bought the cardigan in White Stuff itself and not the franchise in JL they would have nicely folded it and put it in a paper carrier which I would have used until it fell apart and then put in the recycling bin. In JL I bought 2 pasta bowls which they wrapped in copious layers of plastic bubble wrap and handed to me to put in my hessian bag from Waitrose which has been used a million times. I have just put all the bubble warp in the recycling which is where the plastic bag would have gone if they had given me one. A JL 'partner' said 'its all for charity aint it' I said 'not the Vat it isn't'. A member of stuff in Debenhams said how embarrassing it had been that morning to sell a customer a £300 watch and ask him for 5pence for a plastic bag. She said' David Cameron doesn't go shopping so he doesn't know how impractical this all is'.

Get that Sainsburys bag off of here! I got banned from their forums because I kicked up a fuss about that hideous campaign!!!

Good for you, jingl. Flipping cheek considering the amount of money we may have spent there over the years and the patience and energy we have needed to guide our own old bags very elderly relatives around the store.

That kind of campaign is NOT funny.

I agree merlot.

Sorry if I have offended but it's not only Sainsburys that use that slogan. I have seen some posh designer shopping bags with the logo.

We can't edit our own posts, so I will leave it up to GNHQ to decide if it stays or goes.

Oh no! Don't take it seriously Pittcity. It's fine. (was a long time ago)

I'm not offended either.

But I'll add that if any of my dearly beloved family thinks I might like one for Christmas they'll be wearing it over their heads.

I don't think that 5p is actually enough to ensure people carry reusable bags. It really needs to
be a much more significant amount-say 25/30p-which would escalate into a couple of pounds if doing a supermarket shop, 30/40p on a big shop for half a dozen or so bags doesn't really register.

Luckygirl it's not just supermarkets. It's any company that employs over a certain number of people. So all the large chains no matter what they sell.
Teetime You can't put plastic carriers in the recycling in our area.
To dispose of my cats litter I am told to tie it up in a plastic bag and put it in the general waste bin. I had to buy a roll of bin liners to use instead of old plastic carriers. How does that help.