Clegg,Lib Dems and plastic bags.

[beorhthelm]

And you got them replaced, obviously.

is that the intent? never made clear, certainly not offered a replacement as i struggled with broken handles, even when buying a new one to resolve the situation on one occasion.

the 5p fee is voluntary with no current legislation. of the shops i use only M&S and B&Q took it seriously, though M&S introduced a smaller free "sandwich" bag whcih they give you a dozen of if you did a grocery shop there. B&Q are militant about it.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I wish supermarkets would do more about the waste that comes with the food. I don't want polystyrene with my apples thank you.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Fair point,however as you could be paying why can/you not have a choice of where any surplus goes ?

I guess some of the supermarkets will let customers choose a local or regional environmental charity rather than a national one , the levy is going towards cleaning up the countryside etc rather than say animal or humanitarian charities.

 

[fataddick]

is that the intent? never made clear, certainly not offered a replacement as i struggled with broken handles, even when buying a new one to resolve the situation on one occasion.

Er, yes it is made clear - every supermarket that sells a 'Bag for Life' says clearly at the point of sale (and often on the bag itself) that it will be replaced for free as many times as needed.

You didn't get that from the name 'Bag for Life'?

In other words you thought that individual bag would last forever? What the f*** did you think it was made out of, cockroach shells and Kryptonite?

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

I wish supermarkets would do more about the waste that comes with the food. I don't want polystyrene with my apples thank you.

I think there should be a law on packaging, to reduce the amount we use. The one thing that really annoys me are those 'sports' top squirty thingies they put on water bottles these days. So totally unnecessary and such a waste of material and manufacturing energy.

 

[Gwylan]

the 5p fee is voluntary with no current legislation. of the shops i use only M&S and B&Q took it seriously, though M&S introduced a smaller free "sandwich" bag whcih they give you a dozen of if you did a grocery shop there. B&Q are militant about it.

Not true. Aldi charge for plastic bags - and it's not voluntary.

Quite right too. It's pretty commonplace practice on the continent and it's legislation that's long overdue

I wish supermarkets would do more about the waste that comes with the food. I don't want polystyrene with my apples thank you.

Gets me mad - why do we need so much wrapping. I buy most of my fruit and veg from market stalls but sometimes have to use supermarkets and can't believe the amount of superfluous crud that's used. Don't know how that can be legislated against but I'd love to see it stopped

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Everyone certainly said a few years ago they would charge 5p per bag, that's why the Bag for Life thing was introduced. Maybe the legislation got delayed but for Clegg to announce it as something new is bullshit. I've been taking a rucksack to avoid placcy bag charges when shopping for several years now.

Careful, notable increases in e-coli from repeat use bags. In 10 years time bringing your own infected bags into a foodstore will be rightly banned & legislation introduced to ensure supermarkets supply unused, clean ones....

 

[beorhthelm]

You didn't get that from the name 'Bag for Life'?

In other words you thought that individual bag would last forever? What the f*** did you think it was made out of, cockroach shells and Kryptonite?

or maybe the same stuff as the Ikea bags which i still have going strong years after purchase (one used to skip tile rubble). yes, i thought bag for life meant strong enough to last a life, or at least a few years. not a few months.

agree with the point about focus should be on other packaging. never really understood why the emphasis was on bags and its daft when you consider all the small bags and wrappings that will be excluded. i'll bet small shops will be too.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

or maybe the same stuff as the Ikea bags which i still have going strong years after purchase (one used to skip tile rubble). yes, i thought bag for life meant strong enough to last a life, or at least a few years. not a few months.

agree with the point about focus should be on other packaging. never really understood why the emphasis was on bags and its daft when you consider all the small bags and wrappings that will be excluded. i'll bet small shops will be too.

A bag for life means that it will be replaced FOC when it is either tatty , riddled with holes or the handles have fallen off. In all likelihood when the levy is introduced the supermarkets will do away with the "bag for life" scheme and replace them with a "reusable bag" alternative (now = bag for life @ 10p initial charge , in 2015 = single use bag @ 5p or reusable bag @ 10p)

 

[5mins-from-amex]

My wife gets her printer ink from amazon, and the amount of cardboard used anyone would think that we were getting a small LCD TV delivered every month!

 

[33057 Seagull]

about time, in fact in some parts of the world they are banned as the biggest single cause of flooding (blocking drains).
and what is the point in using them to pick up dog shit then hanging them on the nearest tree?

 

[BensGrandad]

My wife gets her printer ink from amazon, and the amount of cardboard used anyone would think that we were getting a small LCD TV delivered every month!

That happens with all Amazon parcels as one of my sons is a courier and they get boxes 24in x 18in x 9 inch and inside is a blister pack with a single item like a knife or laptop battery in it.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Try and convince a few more people to use reusable bags, perhaps?

It's a con to say the bags aren't re-usable. All my plastic bags get used multiple times.

A more worthwhile policy would to be to tax supermarkets on how much packaging they use.

 

[withdeanwombat]

I go on this computer thingy and shop online. Before you know it, a supermarket person has driven the shopping to my door in trays. Excellent !

 

[Worried Man Blues]

It's actually not a problem, supermarkets will always let you have a spare box for those essential dozen bottles!

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I go on this computer thingy and shop online. Before you know it, a supermarket person has driven the shopping to my door in trays. Excellent !

When I used to shop online with Tesco guess what all the stuff in those trays was in ?

 

[Brovion]

Er, you do understand the concept of a Bag for Life don't you? Please tell me you're joking.

I don't like the terminology though. 'Life' simply means 'the life of the bag' (which in beorhthlem's case wasn't very long!), but you may as well say that a Kleenex tissue comes with a 'lifetime guarantee'

 

[GT49er]

Oh,my sounds great as Clegg is set to announce this new idea to reduces waste (fine good idea) however the money will go to charity and not to HM Govt. Stuff it Clegg it will only work if the user's of that store have a choice of a charity,not you.

If paying 5p a bag is compulsory it will work - and giving customers a choice of charity will be quite irrelevant (and add to the administration costs). Personally, I think it should go to HMG anyway (and certainly not to increase the profits of T..co's, S....bury's, etc.) - seems a perfectly reasonable way of generating much neded tax revenue

 

[GT49er]

I wish supermarkets would do more about the waste that comes with the food. I don't want polystyrene with my apples thank you.

Hear hear!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

If paying 5p a bag is compulsory it will work - and giving customers a choice of charity will be quite irrelevant (and add to the administration costs). Personally, I think it should go to HMG anyway (and certainly not to increase the profits of T..co's, S....bury's, etc.) - seems a perfectly reasonable way of generating much needed tax revenue

Current estimates are that 8 billion plastic carrier bags are thrown away every year in the UK. One way or another, this costs the taxpayer a fortune. Experience in Wales and Northern Ireland is that introducing a 5p charge reduces demand for plastic bags by something like 75 - 80 per cent.

Any measure that means the end of 5 - 6 billion plastic bags a year can't be a bad thing.