Does anyone really believe this?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....ntroduce-5p-levy.html

7 in 10 shoppers back charging for plastic bags, can this be true, what do ABers think?

I can never understand if they are so worried about the environment why they don't issue Biodegradable bags.

I have noticed however that on my visits to supermarkets, I have noticed that it is generally the more mature shopper who take along their own bags, whist younger shoppers tend to take up the supermarkets plastic ones, why is this?

[EvianBaby]

Tesco tried biodegradeable bags but they were so useless you needed to triple bag everything so they switched them back.

I often just forget to take my bag for life with me when I go shopping.

[emmie]

I do, and no idea why the young if that is the case don't take plastic bags with them, perhaps they don't think it's cool to do so.

[andy-hughes]

Because when our parents went shopping, there were no carrierbags.

You went to the corner shop and bought stuff daily, and carried it home in your own shopping bag, or a box if you bought enough stuff.

With supermnarkets came the notion of convenience shopping - inlcuding disposable bags, and a generation has grown up knowing that and nothing else, while the remaining older population carry on their habbit of taking a bag when they go shopping.

[friedgreentomato]

I agree with the charging of plastic bags - It may get me in gear to use the countless recyclable ones I have at home.

The other option is that we ue brown paper bags as they do in the states and in Eire.

[jno]

maybe mature shoppers go from home (like me) so can pick up their bags as they leave the house. Younger people do it while at work so can't.

Just a guess.

Paper bags are biodegradable, but they're not strong enough and tear too easily.

[Mosaic]

Em, I think you are onto something with the 'image' thing. It's only latterly that re-useable bags beccame acceptably trendy.
I think there is a bigger global issue with these wretched plastic bags - no corner of the world seems to be without drifting clouds of them these days.

[Ann]

I'm an older shopper and I usually take along my large strong bags I have bought from a variety of stores, but often I don't take them as I love carrier bags to use time and time again around the house and garden, in fact I couldn't imagine life without them now. They are so useful. This week, I used them in this way. I took magazines in them to a friend who passes them on to a nursing home. I split up some border plants and put them in individual carrier bags to give to a friend. I put some summer shoes away in one as the season is over, I gave my Mum some vegetables and some prepared dinners in a carrier bag. My weeds were put in two and taken to the compost heap. I line a bucket with them in our caravan awning to use for rubbish. I think the same, that the bags should be bio-degradable as they used to be a few years ago.

[Old_Geezer]

You can never tell with folk. Most I know want to reduce waste but have uses for the bags and so are hardly in favour of paying for them. I know I'm not. If the store wishes to charge I find one that doesn't. It's not like the "around forever" tale cuts any ice, as anyone who has stored stuff in these bags can testify. They degrade to pieces.

Older folk hark back to their earlier days when the local corner shop provided you with just the odd paper bag, but there again you were just getting the day's shop, not one for the whole week or longer. When the hypermarkets arrived they frowned on you supplying your own bags; wanting to know you weren't hiding suff on them I expect. Younger shoppers know only this arrangement; and are more likely to be doing a large shop that won't fit in their shopping bag anyway.

[THECORBYLOON]

Older folk tend to use message bags or a trolley because that is what they are used to using and I doubt the younger ones would even think about using a message bag, they're not exactly fashionable are they?

[Ann]

What would happen if you bought clothes e.g a white jumper in a shop and didn't have a clean carrier bag given with it - it would be really grubby by the time you got it home. I think clothes should continue to be put in a suitable bag.

[jno]

I don't think clothing purchases are really the problem, it's supermarket shopping. (And it's not the shops' fault, it's the customers who throw them away.)

[dickythecook]

I try to take my 'Bags for Life' Sometime a senior moment strikes and I don't but when I am at the supermarket I feel guilty and I make sure I recycle the plastic ones I use. A lot of people I know use them as bin liners and so they end up in landfill which kind of defeats the object. I wonder if a return to sturdy paper bags (using recycled paper of course) for grocery buys might help this plastic contamination of the planet.

[jno]

TCL, is a message bag one that says "Save The Whales"?

[Infomaniac]

I re-use my plastic bags until they fall apart, and also take "bags for life". I would have no problem paying the supermarket for extra plastic bags provided they were plain with no logos. They must be cheaper to produce without printing and if I am going to pay, I don't see why I should pay to advertise the supermarket.

[CatGirl4]

I usually go to the shops almost daily,i always take my own bags as i worry about landfills.I'm an "older"shopper!

[Ellipsis]

I use plastic bags, then re-use them at home, usually as a mini bin-bag. If I didn't use them, my rubbish would still be in a different bin bag. I don't see what it gains to not use a carrier bag.

> no corner of the world seems to be without drifting clouds of them these days

Really? I hardly see any. I do see loads of takeaway cartons and dog mess, but no carrier bags. Should these problems be addressed first?

Maybe if the problem is that bad then, like the Australian cigarette packs, carrier bags should be covered with warnings and pictures of their effects, rather than the logos of the supermarkets.

[THECORBYLOON]

Or buy dolphin-friendly tatties.... I kept some stuff in one of the bags the Co-Op used to give out. It was there for quite a while but when I picked it up it turnt into plastic confetti.

[Infomaniac]

In France they do not supply bags at the supermarkets, so everyone has to take their own or has to buy bags (not plastic) there, or use boxes if they are available. It is a simple solution to the problem of excessive plastic bags.

[Gromit]

Older people tend to make a visit specifically to the supermarket and plan by taking reusable bags with them. Younger people go to the supermarket after work or between other appointments. They are more spur of the moment shoppers and tend not to plan ahead.

Also, older people traditionally had shopping bags, and all the throwaway plastic bags were unwelcome. Younger people have always know disposable bags so it is more ingrained in them.

[flip_flop]

I use bags for life because they are large and strong.

When I do need to use a plastic they are re-used as I use them to clear-up after my dog.

I don't think charging for bags by the supermarkets is a way to encourage people to re-use/use bags for life - I believe it is another revenue stream. If M&S decided to charge for their bags for 'green' reasons, why then do they overpackage just about every food product they sell? Buy four packed apples from M&S and they come in their own tray, which has a plastic lid and is then wrapped in plastic - three unecessary pieces of packing.