Carrier Bag Charges: a "Percentage Will Go To Good Causes"

I bought bags years ago when they started charging which I’m still using can’t remember the last time I bought one to be honest I always have one or more with me.

In Tesco and Coop we choose which charity is supported

Maria59

In Tesco and Coop we choose which charity is supported

👍👏🎂

I think in Waitrose you can also choose

I’m not really sure why, in some shops, they are charging for paper carrier bags.

The government makes money through the sales. The companies pay VAT because they are classed as sold goods.
A limited company, Tesco and the like can claim tax relief.

Well I've contributed lately, not meaning to. Went to Sainsburys with my usual collection of well worn bags. As I approached the check out, it dawned on me they weren't there. So I bought two new bags. How nice to have them so pristine. Returning my trolley I spied my old bags, in a trolley with jammed wheels in which I'd dumped bags before abandoning it and foolishly absent mindedly leaving bags too. Ah well I've got a fair old collection now.

Each year, certain data on sales of single-use plastic bags sold by large retailers (those with 250 or more full-time equivalent employees) has to be supplied to DEFRA.

This is the latest report for 2024/25

www.gov.uk/government/publications/carrier-bag-charge-summary-of-data-in-england/single-use-plastic-carrier-bags-charge-data-for-england-2024-to-2025

The main retailers are Asda, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, The Co-operative Group and Waitrose.

Tesco and Waitrose have reported that they did not sell any single-use plastic carrier bags from 2022/2023 onwards.

The other main retailers, Asda, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and The Co-operative Group sold 164 million single-use plastic carrier bags in England in 2024/2025.

31% of retailers, who accounted for 90% of all bag sales reported for this period, voluntarily provided additional information on how they chose to donate proceeds from the carrier bag charge. In total, these retailers donated £7.7 million to good causes.

The total amount donated to good causes from proceeds of the single-use carrier bag charge (and reported to DEFRA) since its introduction in 2015 is now over £225 million.

Two of the main retailers, Asda and Sainsbury’s who sold single-use carrier bags in 2024/2025 did not report their donations.

I cannot remember when I last bought a shopping bag - of any kind- .

In fact I am thinking of setting up a rack in the front garden loaded with bags of various kinds saying 'Help yourself'

Cossy

I think in Waitrose you can also choose

I’m not really sure why, in some shops, they are charging for paper carrier bags.

Paper sure it's biodegradable but there is a price, environmental & financial, in making them available
so as long as they're not making a profit on them & given that most of the time we supply our own bags, think it makes sense.

Monica I m the same got enough bags for life to start a shop They just keep multiplying I haven’t bought one for years and years

Thanks Graphite, that's interesting.
I shop in Tesco which doesn't offer disposable plastic or paper bags ; did n't even realise they are still available and popular elsewhere. I always have re-usable bags in the car and every handbag contains a (strong) nylon one that folds up to nothing with a button.

BlueBelle

Monica I m the same got enough bags for life to start a shop They just keep multiplying I haven’t bought one for years and years

Same with me, I do not buy them.

I think it is the men in the family. Despite putting a couple of cloth bags in each car, neither ever remembers to use them and they end up buying yet another bag for life whenever they shop on their own.

Plastic carrier bags should be banned immediately.

We are still using Waitrose bags from about 1995. They look a bit tatty but they do well.

I find that although I have quite a lot of bags, because I use them for other things such as sorting charity stuff, taking books or (say) crockery to one of my daughters, for sorting clothes etc I can never find the right number in the right place at the right time.
They may be in the wrong car, up in a bedroom, half full of apples from my mother-in-law's tree...

I currently have three with things in going different directions eventually but currently cluttering up the hallway.
And one waiting for me to unload (and sort) the remaining decorating items (brushes, sandpaper, glue, rollers) etc just returned to me...
I think this is how we acquired more that us really necessary for shopping... sometimes you just dont have enough!

I suppose "in the old days" you would have just used a cardboard box for groceries but those are whisked away quickly in most supermarkets.
I have still had them recently from Lidl though..