No more unexpected item in the bagging area

John,

The existing system of charging 5p per bag has been in place for some years in Wales. It seems to work well there and helps encourage the re-use of carrier bags.

The “more than 250 staff” requirement means that it will only apply to the large national chains . Many “Branded” corner shops and supermarkets are franchises and will not be covered.
This seems a ridiculous cop-out !

Yes, I presume the small shopkeepers association pressed for exemptions. W H Smith, B&Q and Homebase will be covered as well as department stores, PC World, Waterstones and presumably some of the clothing chains if the bags they use are regarded as ‘single-use’. I was wondering whether paper bags would be offered by some stores. Sainsbury’s and the old Safeway used to supply large strong brown-paper bags, as indeed Primark do today.

We have scores of ‘bags for life’ in odd cubby-holes around the house but we never seem to have the right sort in the right size when we arrive at the shops! I suppose we’ll get used to it and be better prepared in future. All our ‘one-trip’ plastic bags get saved and reused at least once but this is a worthwhile measure to reduce the amount of plastic waste and harm to wildlife and the environment.

Having recently returned from a 3 week vacation in Orlando where, believe it or not, we visited a branch of Wal-Mart, we noticed that there were NO Self Service tills there and they quite blithely dispensed plastic carriers (in fact there is no facilities for supplying your own bag) to all. However we did notice that much more use was made of paper bags and/or paper wrapping of food items unlike our own Supermarkets.

Perhaps if our Supermarkets and local shops started using more natural methods of packaging products instead of their reliance upon plastic cartons, film wrap and cling film then we would not need to cut down on the use of plastic bags so much. After all it is not that many years ago we used to buy all our foodstuffs wrapped in brown paper and it worked well for years.

Also how much of the ‘convenience’ foods are wrapped in these plastic products and how much of these wrappers are actually recyclable? I have found that many products state on them that the wrapper is ‘currently not recyclable’. Also how many recyclable products are ACTUALLY recycled by the consumer and/or the retailer?

Paper bags are not as environmentally friendly as they may seem, unfortunately. On top of the raw materials and processing there is the complication that sufficient waterproofing to make them practical greatly interferes with their ability to be composted, and paper bags are not often reused.

Sadly, ‘Bags for life’ are not always reused much, if at all.

Paper bags are also heavier than plastic bags to transport and take up more space. Usually the handles on paper carrier bags of the sort once used by supermarkets are attached to the body of the bag by strong adhesives which retards decomposition. I do not think the paper bags used by Sainsbury’s and Safeway until the 1980’s were waterproofed at all so they would disintegrate if it was raining heavily or if they were stood down on a damp patch of pavement. The paper bags used by many fashion and shoe shops today are certainly waterproofed with a heavy lacquer finish [partly for design and appearance purposes] which must make them almost undegradable.

The history of degradable bags is full of confusion. I would not like to guess how much is misunderstanding and how much misrepresentation. Simply impregnating or coating bags with wax greatly impairs biodegradability. I suspect you are right about the lacquered bags and goodness knows what happens when they are fed into paper recycling.

There have been many proposed solutions to the widespread use of non-degradable plastic bags. Genuine biodegradable plastics that compost well are available but are either too expensive or have unsatisfactory properties. Knowing my interest, one of my research students proudly presented me with a bag from the Bahai Publishing Trust, bearing the message “This bag is photo-degradable”. I found it at the bottom of a filing cabinet recently, still intact because it has seen little light. The dialing code is 0572 rather than 01572 so I guess it dates from the early 90s or before. Photodegradable plastics won’t degrade in landfill, so that was not a good solution. We have had starch-filled plastics and other sham biodegradables for years. These disintegrate but contribute to the huge amount of tiny plastic particles in the environment, causing mayhem in our oceans.

Meanwhile back on topic, I found that there were no manned checkouts available at Tesco when I called in a 9.30 pm. At least I managed to relieve myself of most of a plastic bag full of 5, 10 and 20p coins, something I would not inflict on any checkout operator.

Paying 5p for plastic bags has been in operation in Northen Ireland for some time now and has reduced the amount of unsightly bags on streets and hedges the place looks much cleaner our 5p goes to the Environment Agency.
Most people have invested in “bags for life” which have proved more versatile and secure than their plastic rivals, and we are doing our bit for the environment.

As far as I know, two of the best supermarkets in England have never given away free carrier bags. I refer, of course, to Aldi and Lidl.

I found this system to be a pain in the rear end when we went to Wales. Even going to a fast food store involved paying for the bag in which you carry your food in.
I can see the reasoning though.

The charge for bags in Northern Ireland is for all bags, not just plastic ones. I think the tax has reduced the numbers of plastic bags in our environment but charging for all bags is OTT!

I would still prefer a monkey.

Me too 😀

Actually I have of a report by a person on the moneysavingexpert site, that Aldi are trailing a test site with self scans.

I disagree. Aldi/Lidl only usually have two tills open at a time when I go and the queues are much longer than the bigger supermarket. I do like a shop at these places but the till queues put me off. I would happily use self service tills or self scans in these two shops if they did bring them in.

Although you might see this as a tax on consumption, the net tax revenue to UK Government might actually go down, if supermarkets end up by buying fewer bags for their customers to use – i.e. any asociated VAT receipts would fall.

Hence I see this as more of a “nudge” in favour of sustainability.

Incidently, who do you suppose is already paying for all these “free” carrier bags?

Jackie, your restrained use of these bags is most commendable. I think the wider issue here is the more general behaviour of the UK population.

Our big shops are mostly from Ocado who take all plastic bags back for recycling as do some of the other supermarkets.

When we get a delivery, the bags are sorted into 3 piles – good condition get reused for shopping, slightly damaged get used in the rubbish bin (1 per week), and the unusable are put aside for giving back to Ocado.

We tried Waitrose self-scanning once and kept forgetting to scan the items. As we didn’t want to be accused of theft, didn’t use them again.