5p levy on plastic bags

Hmmm, I take it no-one knows the answer to my question then!

Well I agree- focussing on plastic bags without trying really hard to reduce and possibly get rid of all the huge amounts of plastic packaging is a bit futile. But a start.

Possibly we as cutomers could do our bit but really changing our shopping habits and NOT buying fruit and veg in plastic containers, etc. If people stopped buying, the retailers would soon change their ways. Perhaps?

Sorry Hollydaze - there is a general pressure to reduce packaging. Still some way to go I think. My DH ordered an electric toothbrush. It arrived in the post with its box contained in another box which was half a metre long!
I think the point is that most of these thin plastic bags go straight in the bin and add to the quantity of plastic that is sent to landfill. Landfill space is in short supply in the UK. Also plastic bags are made out of crude oil.
By encouraging people to bring re-usable shopping bags you can, at a stroke, take millions of plastic bags out of the picture.

JessM - I don't know if you saw this in the papers (quite a while ago now) but if this could be rolled out, recycling of those bags would supply 'free' raw materials for this. I'm no scientist so I would have to take his word for it being another solution for energy supply:

cleantechnica.com/2011/02/14/award-winning-inventor-makes-fuel-from-plastic-bags/

Anyone have any thoughts on his invention? (I haven't heard anything about it since though.)

I do sometimes worry about cross contamination when I use my own bags
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2478235/How-bag-life-POISON-Expert-warns-reusable-carriers-contaminated-E-coli.html
and prefer to put meat in a separate plastic bin which I then bin. Why can't stores sell recylable paper carrier bags for those who want them?

Oop - should have typed plastic bag!!! I don't go shopping with a plastic bin

That article makes me wonder how we and all previous generations survived when our mothers used the same bag or basket until it fell apart, and then had it mended to use for another decade or two

And do you remember bringing eggs home in a paper bag? I don't think I ever broke one.

In N. Ireland we have a 5p tax on each plastic bag in ANY shop, food clothes, hardware etc. everyone is just in the habit of bringing their own. Easy! Why the fuss in England?

Is there a fuss & who by? Probably not reading the right newspapers. But it was classic seeing the Queen in her crown & ermine reading the bit about plastic bags in Parliament. Could that only happen in the UK?

This is why plastic bags should be banned.

Maybe the whole widespread plastic use needs to be rethought when there are suitable and easily obtainable alternatives.

We always take our own backpacks and/or cloth bags when we go shopping, and it is just a habit. It really annoys me when we don't get the green points in Tesco's though, so I've taken to saying "No thanks, we don't need bags, we'd rather have the green points please" and that often works.

When we get a charge for plastic bags in Scotland (October, i think) it will be good to have fewer pairs of witches' knickers in the trees!

It is good to see that so many of us do use our own bags. If you haven't heard of morsbags, do look on morsbags.com or google morsbags. A young woman who lives on a canal was so distressed by all the plastic bags floating by, and also damaging animals elsewhere, that she designed a very simple pattern for making your own bag, using old materials like duvet covers, curtains, skirts - just recycling an old/unused item into a shopping bag. There are now groups all over the world making these morsbags - for personal use, or giving away free. Making these bags is rather addictive - I now have loads - and they pop in the washing machine so stay hygienic too!

The packaging is a huge problem that is harder to tackle; fruit and veg are easy to buy loose, but not much else.

Whenever I finish a quilt I use the leftover scraps to make a tote of some sort to be given away. There is a method on YouTube for turning old jeans into a bag . It's in Spanish but you the film is self explanatory

That sounds lovely Stansgran - a one of a kind bag, what a luck recipient.

Quite literally a 'bum bag' Stansgran!

Unless you go to the USA- and they call it a 'fanny pack'!!!