Plastic carrier bags, recycling and environment

we charge 2p for bags where I work and it all goes on chocolates and other treats for the staff at the end of the year aaaaaaaaahhh sad c*w

I work for an upmarket food store and must says we charge for bags abd make over 100,000 for charity a month. We sell bags for life which we replace if the break or get holes in. As for al the complaints about packaging from all over the world if you object to packaging dont buy product. As for spur of the moment purchases thougth luck if you cant carry a small bag in your habd bag or pocket then its your fault we do need to do some thing about bags especially when people use more bags than needed i've had customers ask for a bag fore fish as it may leek and smell s a bag for this and for that what ever happend to just packing heavy at the bpttom and cold in a diffrent bag to ambient the only items I aggree need a separate bag are cream as the lids on them are crap

If I am going on a supermarket shop, I remember to take my re-usable bags.

If I do a spur of the moment shop, I expect a free carrier. The Spar are terrible at this though. They don't provide single use carriers, only 10p re-usables.

I got fed up with the pile of re-usabled bags I had collected at Spar so stopped shopping there for small items. to me, that shop is no longer usable because of this silly 10p bag thing - which let's be honest, is a money spinner for the Spar.

If these shops were so very concerned with the environment, their products wouldn't come from half way around the world with all the pollution involved in their carriage.

We can make nuclear fusion, surely some clever scientist can invent a cheap, biodegradeable single use carrier bag?

has anybody noticed that some shops only have tiny tiny carrier bags that will only just fit a few sweets then you stand there struggling to bunch them together and put one item in each one....the checkout person grunts a few times whilst agressively pointing at a rack filled to bursting with £1.99 bags of which you will need 4, 5 or even 6 ..the other people in the que are there pitchforks at the ready.....um um ok ok ok I'll take 6 of these...and...just wait until I put my stuff in....beep beep beep....hey don't put the next guys things through yet....(checkout person...UH...ROLLEYES).and that will be £11.94 for the carrier bags....oh b^gger the handle fell off ....smash...rolling noise...

A nice little earner, 60p, what sorry, 3 carrier bags 20p each. sir....its for the environment....actually its because we dont give you cardboard boxes like we did in the 80's because we sell those by weight to get recycled and they get shipped to china and made into new boxes for next years things we will sell to you...
Carrier bags- make about 20 for a penny, sell them for 5, 10 or even 20p each, ha ha easy profit, more markup than the stuff in the basket...an ever super duper lasting jute or cotton bag, sir....made in india or china for 4p and that will be a pound each, the slightly thicker bags with plastic handles are £2.20 each.....still wont stop illegal dumping of rubbish in the sea by large companies in various countries or "waste management " companies managing to ship rubbish abroad to dissapear.....just like the certain £2000 allowance which is eaten up in mark ups, both are beneficial to corporate tycoons...
All that will happen is this, they know that you need carrier bags unless you reverse the car up to the shop door, which you are no longer legally allowed to do, if you bring a bag back, the checkout person will beep in the price of the bag anyway because they have been warned to or else by "head office" so you get peed off and think if I'm going to pay every time for a bag I might as well get a new one each time" and you will end up hoarding expensive carrier bags until, guess what , you get fed up and out of space and throw them away anyway, then they will probably charge you for recycling by that point...

One in three tv sets that arrive at the tip still works, so do a lot of other things, computers, tools, lawnmowers ect,(I know someone who works there)

A conservative guess at the "average" age of items dumped there, would be well less than ten years old,

And yet carrier bags seem to be the root of all evil, even Gormless Brown had to give them a mention in one of his budgets.

I re-use my single use carrier bags because in a way I dont like waste so wont throw them away and have a cupboard full of them at home. I re-use them to stop me from adding to my collection and also because I get extra clubcard points. if I shop on spur of the moment or forget my bags I have never had a snooty look or been refused bags, I have read that asda bosses only allow the checkout clerks x amount of bags a day and thats why they get in a huff about it, but I shop in tesco or sainsburys so dont really get that problem

Since it now is a thing of the past to expect that there will be carrier bags at the checkout in our local Tesco, I have bought numerous of their bags for life, BUT, just how long is life? as the handles regularly break on the day of purchase. I have pointed this out to customer services, and was told by a particularly uppity assistant that they had broken because I was using them for the wrong kind of shopping. I pointed out that there were no guidelines on just what your shopping should consist of, and I assumed that they were designed for normal grocery shopping, to this she replied that heavy items such as canned goods or potatoes should not be placed in them, and perhaps I should buy myself a good leather shoppimg bag. Next we will see Tesco selling leather shopping bags [SUITABLE FOR HEAVY SHOPPING] So it would appear that "Bags for Life" are designed for customers who have a short life span. I've given up trying to understand their logic, I now shop at Morrisons.

When the world ends you will burnt/cremated in a recycled plastic bag on top of a pile of logs cut down from an Amazonian forest. They said you were irreplaceable. But I don't believe them. I married an old carrier bag, and we ended up in land-fill. For fifteen years we were on the council-house waiting list, only ending up on the waste heap. So much for our wonderful society. We are all throw-away citizens nowadays. We all ought to be banned.

Youthful Griper, Grumpyoldwoman & Gainsborough Lad & others

I have a fridge freezer that is 20 years old, I forget how long I have had the microwave but it is the only one I have ever had and my armchairs came to me third hand. I buy new stuff only when the old runs out.

I don’t own a tumble dryer and air dry washing outside and have not flown anywhere for 11 years. I walk everywhere or get the bus and have been taking my own bags for the weekly supermarket shop for 40 years.

Apparently I am a threat to the environment though because, having for once forgotten to bring my own, I asked for a carrier bag in the supermarket and got a lecture from the snotty kid serving me.

When the world ends I will, apparently, be to blame so can I apologize in advance for the inconvenience?

Grumpyoldwoman, yes, that will never end up down the tip, I can see it on antiques roadshow in 2350 ad.

I hate the way Sainsbury's checkout people ask, "Do you have your own bags?". "Yes, that's why I'm stood here with all of my shopping piling up (with no bags in my hands)".

Wow, GL, that's a big one! A very worthwhile investment I should think; a place for everything and everything in it's place.

grumpyoldwoman

There is one "carefull" purchase that I have made recently from Costco, after looking at it for two years, I took the plunge and bought it... Google image "Torin Jacks 56 inch tool chest", (supplied without tools at 245kg)

That purchase will last forever, no re-cycling for this, my ten year old lad has been promised it when I snuff it, and knows what is in every drawer.

G Lad; I'm right with you there on the digital stuff and kitchen appliances.

Something else that annoys me with bits & pieces for the kitchen is that colours go in & out of "fashion" so quickly. When my current kitchen was new I went for utensils, teapot, oven gloves etc in dark green & brown, to go with a dark brown hob & pale green walls. These things gradually needed replacing & then I found the colours I had were "out"; after a bit of searching I got the impression that it would be easier to re-decorate the kitchen to one of the colours that was currently "in" than keep trying to get the colours I wanted!

The same goes for bathroom stuff, I think you would need to keep buying a new suite every 5 years to keep up with the fahion in towel colours.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why people buy a new sofa every 2 or 3 years; they need new cushions and have to buy a new sofa to go with the current "in" colour for cushions because they can't get any that match the old sofa!

grumpyoldwoman

grumpyoldwoman, it's not just the problem of disposing of the old item, if it is a set top box, the new one has to be re-tuned, then you have to learn how to use the new remote, if it is a new kitchen appliance you may have to alter cupards, worktops,

New settee every two years? are they fastening the springs under the seat with staples on purpose?, so they come undone and you have to buy a new one, more landfill,

All drink tastes better from glass bottles, why do we put up with tins? (of every different size).
I am gobsmacked that the EU haven't dictated to us that we do the same as them,

The comments below give me a sense of nostalgia.

My grandpa bought my mum and my grandma a microwave each back in 1984, it was a Toshiba. Gran had a white one, mum received a dark brown one. They were huge and operated with 2 dials. My mums packed up as we moved house back in 1998 so did well. My grandma still has hers and its still going strong which is amazing considering my mum has gone through 3 microwaves since 1998.

I remember it wasn't so long ago, again around the year 2000 that my gran's Hoover twin-tub washing device finally gave up its 1970s/1980s technology.

It seems that things aren't made to last these days.

G Lad; you have hit two nails on the head there!

I hate the fact that consumer appliances seem to be looked on as disposable these days. I have a microwave of similar vintage to yours, a Samsung, bought in 1987. It's the only one I've ever had but nowadays it seems you're lucky if they last 5 years. Then you have the bother of getting a new one and disposing of the old one. Still, so many people seem to make a hobby of shopping these days; it gives them an excuse!

Then, as you say, there are the people who have to have a new sofa every couple of years or their life just isn't complete. I suppose they are the ones who go down to DFS on Boxing Day. Personally you'd have to pay me; I've far better things to do at Christmas!

As to the thing with the carrier bags, I do it all the time! There isn't one supermarket that sells everything I need and as I have Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrisons all within easy reach I go to whichever I need to at the time, and trot out a variety of (long lasting or falling apart) bags from all of them!

Deposit bottles should be brought back by law. You can say what you like about the Germans; they do know how to do things effficiently!

Kit; that sounds like an excellent idea from Holland; it could be organised quite easily I think, although I can't see the binmen clearing up the leftovers. Some women already do a similar thing with clothes I think.

As to plastic bags; I keep re-using them till they fall apart. It's not just a problem with landfill, large numbers find their way into the sea where they are eaten by turtles and other animals, as when they are floating full of water they look like jellyfish. The end result is usually fatal. I use as few as possible; I even re-use fruit & veg bags if they are clean. The staff in Tesco quite often have to weigh apples in a Morrisons bag! As I use them up I'm gradually getting a collection of cloth bags.

grumpyoldwoman

I'm sorry I made a mistake there and it should have read one Sunday each month

Kit

I read that in Holland there is one Sunday every week when people can leave household goods that they don't want on the pavement outside their home. Any one is free to take any thing home that they fancy and anything not chosen is picked up by rubbish collectors the next day.

It keeps a lot of useful items out of landfill, saves the raw materials and energy that would have been needed to produce new goods and saves people money. People treat it as a sort of day out, like going to multiple car boot sales, except no money is involved.