[Closed] 5 pence per carrier bag in Wales from today

Should be a pound. Lets make a real difference

is it only me that uses carriers to line my bins & then contain all the shite in the wheely bin so there's not a stuck on layer of toxic sludge at the bottom?

When they stop giving out bags I ain't buying bin liners, so my bin's gonna stink, be full of maggoty goodness & be a (bigger) nightmare for the boys on the wagons

Oh, and I'm gonna get a macerator for the sink too (council says don't compost due to rats, so here's to lower refuse weights, blocked sewers, flooding and eutrophication. 😐

Carrefour tried removing plastic bags altogether a couple of years ago and so many customers changed supermarkets that Carrefour had to drop the price of recycled bags from 5c to 1c. Good news for Sainburys in Oswestry and Chester, less good for Wrexham.

surely that is a good thing.

here in ermany plastic carrier bags cost ~50c, sometimes €1 depending on size of the bag.

lots of people here have a dedicated shopping bag. we've got a stylish cloth thing the GF sister got from thailand.

one big difference though is that in the UK people tend to do one big shop a week, whereas here we go shopping at least once every two days. and we got by foot. in the UK i think i almost always drove.

here kitchens are generally smaller (more flats than houses) and there are a lot more, yet smaller supermarkets everywhere (three with a five minute walk of where we live) unlike the UK. however UK supermarkets beat german supermarkets handsdown in terms of range of products (can't get rice here other than "boiled rice" unless you go to an asian place in the city), choice and opening times.

i guess boxes that fold flat would be better in the UK. more practical getting in and out of the car....

germany is relatively clean. don't often see carrier bags hanging in trees. hardly ever see a discarded plastic bottle. all plastic bottles here have a 25c refund on them. there are armies of poor OAPs collecting them in town.

Yeah but you can't hang yer washing outside yer house. 😐

LiDL's has bin charging for baygs for years.

It's complete greenwash.

There's nothing wrong with plastic bags

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/plastic-fantastic-carrier-bags-not-ecovillains-after-all-2220129.html

good idea, BUT. on the condition that they get rid of those crap "biodegradable" ones.

i read an interesting article this month. The jist was, due to the lack of appropriate second hand bags available now that the damn things last precisely half way to the car, people are having to BUY pedal bin liners.

defeating the whole chuffing exercise.

charge for them buy all means, it will help me remember to pick one up BEFORE i go shopping, but FFS they are NO use if they fall to pieces in your fingers.

They do contribute to little though.

I bet you'll find that they will still supply you with free plastic bags too.

Stupid annoying idea. B&Q did it for a while. I went in and spent about £200 on all sorts of stuff. I clearly needed a bag to carry it out, they wanted to charge me 5p, adding that it was for charity. I was incredulous, I'd just spent a big pot of money there and they still wanted to charge me 5p. Even if it is for charity, I think I can decide which charity I give to , how much and when. I was so pissed off for so long that a couple of days later, i dropped by on the way home, picked up loads of little packets of stuff from around the shop, went they tried to charge me 5p for the bag, I told them I wouldn't buy it and so could carry the stuff and walked out.

LiDL's has bin charging for baygs for years.

So do Aldi and M&S. In Morrison and Waitrose near us, you tend to have to ask for bags. I noticed pretty much all supermarkets in France charge.

B&Q near me don't even seem to have bags, let alone charge for them.

We used to pay 5p for bags when I was a kid in Saverite. 5p was a lot more money in the early 80s.

germany is relatively clean. don't often see carrier bags hanging in trees

Yeah cos you get shot if you drop anything. Or, for a first offence you get scolded by miserable old ladies.

in Germany you see crap graffiti everywhere though. And big statues.

[i]picked up loads of little packets of stuff from around the shop, went they tried to charge me 5p for the bag, I told them I wouldn't buy it and so could carry the stuff and walked out.[/i]

Well done for sticking it to the man. I imagine the checkout staff who have absolutely no control over the company policy really appreciated your stance.

tis true... most graffiti is crap. there are a few places near me you can go and see decent stuff. in fact there is some decent stuff to be seen from the train going into town.

my favourite piece is in a posh area of Muninch. it says "Sorry about your wall". brilliant.

[img] [/img]

ASDA have been doing the 5p "bag for life" for ages now. 5p per bag and if it splits, take it back and get another one. Oh and they don't burst when carrying beer home.

Im going into Walesland soon, can somebody lend me some bags,

We have it here in car-centric Oz. Once you get in the habit of remembering the bags, it's really not that much of a pain.

Also, I doubt a macerator would harm the environment much more than the traditional waste from the same source disposed down the sewer about 24 hours later on, if you catch my drift...

[i]CharlieMungus - Member
Stupid annoying idea. B&Q did it for a while. I went in and spent about £200 on all sorts of stuff. I clearly needed a bag to carry it out, they wanted to charge me 5p, adding that it was for charity. I was incredulous, I'd just spent a big pot of money there and they still wanted to charge me 5p. Even if it is for charity, I think I can decide which charity I give to , how much and when. I was so pissed off for so long that a couple of days later, i dropped by on the way home, picked up loads of little packets of stuff from around the shop, went they tried to charge me 5p for the bag, I told them I wouldn't buy it and so could carry the stuff and walked out.[/i]

seriously? or are you a troll? i cant believe anyone would be so stupid/petty/childish for nothing..

Hate it when you see people filling their trolley with plastic bags each with 3 items in. They then take it 10 meters to their big car which they drive a few miles (or maybe round the corner).

picked up loads of little packets of stuff from around the shop, went they tried to charge me 5p for the bag, I told them I wouldn't buy it and so could carry the stuff and walked out.

Well done for sticking it to the man. I imagine the checkout staff who have absolutely no control over the company policy really appreciated your stance.

They probably had the control to just give me a plastic bag. I'm sure they aren't audited. See if you'd thought for a bit you might have come up with that too. Unless you happen to work on the checkout in B&Q. Do you?

seriously? or are you a troll? i cant believe anyone would be so stupid/petty/childish for nothing..

Petty, perhaps but you'll have to explain why it is childish or stuoid.

Should be a pound. Lets make a real difference

Agreed. If you're going to discourage something do it properly.

Petty, perhaps but you'll have to explain why it is childish or stuoid.

I'm taking a guess that it's because not seeing the damage you're doing to the environment when it gets binned later (assuming you don't recycle it, which in fairness you could) is stupidity, and seeing it and not realising you could either re-use a bag or carry it to the car in a trolley is childish ignorance of the consequences of your actions?

(Incidentally I sometimes get plastic bags as I always forget my re-usable bags so I'm guilty too, but more often than not I'll find a way to clutch everything without a bag if physically possible)

I don't think the supermarkets charging for bags will cause too many problems. Plenty of people already bring their own or will pay the 5p per bag like some supermarkets already charge.

It'll be the 5p on your McDonalds paper bag or 5p in HMV when you buy some cds or 5p in Evans when you buy some inner tubes.

Hopefully it'll stop checkout assistants asking me "Are you sure?" when i tell them I don't need a bag.

I'm taking a guess that it's because not seeing the damage you're doing to the environment when it gets binned later

Oooh good! Are we doing guessing now? Right I'm taking a guess thatbyou are killing dogs by slitting their throats, then leabing them lying in the street. Now, that's just cruel and dangerous. You must be an idiot to do something so irresponsible.

(assuming you don't recycle it, which in fairness you could) is stupidity,

and seeing it and not realising you could either re-use a bag

Which bag?

or carry it to the car in a trolley is childish ignorance of the consequences of your actions?[

I didn't want all the stuff being spread out all over the car, and i wanted some safeguard in case it spilled. I know i couldnhave spent my time clearing it up. But taht was vaulable time which would have detracted from my voulnetter work for the rainforest alliance or something.
I'm really surprised how you take a few guesses, make a few assumptions and criticise on that basis. [i]That's[/i] stoopid

 

Fungus - your time is valuable but you won't spend 5p on it?

You are an idiot.

cynic-al - Member
Fungus - your time is valuable but you won't spend 5p on it?

You are an idiot.

My choices and the right to make them are also valuable to me.

You're a moron.

I live in Wales and can't say as it bothers me. When I go to the shops I'll just take a rucksack and a couple of those bags for life. If I forget I'll just take the 5p hit!

CM - so you need to me to explain to you why its childish and stupid?

i think you've just answered the question with your last two responses..

you can drive, so that makes you older than 17..strange as you come across as less intelligent than a 2 yr old (and that may well be an insult to all two year olds..).

grow up.

Usually he seems OK - must have forgotten the meds.

CM - so you need to me to explain to you why its childish and stupid?

i think you've just answered the question with your last two responses..

I responded in kind. I struggle to see how my last two responses have any bearing on my actions at B&Q.

So, yes please explain to me how it was childish and stupid, if you can.

[i]You [/i]grow up

you can drive, so that makes you older than 17..strange as you come across as less intelligent than a 2 yr old (and that may well be an insult to all two year olds..).

also please explain how comparing some one unfavourably to someone else might be an insult to that someone else?

If I said you were uglier than cynic-al or Brad Pitt, i would think that was an insult to either of them. Nor if i said you were less intelligent than Ian Castro or Edward De Bono, i would expect them to be insulted. On that basis, the most intelligent people would constantly be insulted as they are compared favourably to others. Can you explain that one to me? As if to a child.

cost 1 euro here per bag....

outrage lol 😉

It's a silly idea until everyone does it. Then it becomes the norm, and will be better for it.

They've been trying it in Engerland for ages, but in a typically half-assed English way, so if you go to the supermarket you now have to ask for bags rather than help yourself to them. So it's no greener in the long run, you just get a brief twinge of middle-class guilt to go with your shopping.

I've got 'bags for life', and they will last for life, because I can never remember to put them back in the car. If I didn't have an option, I reckon I'd start remembering pretty quickly.

Englishman in Wales, I think it's brill!

I seem to remember it working quite well (in terms of the dramatic reduction in bags being issued) in Ireland. Could have been an interesting thread if people had ignored CM...

Just to put plastic bags in perspective - my store uses on average 10,000 a DAY, (no not a typo).
So to all u lazy ****s out there who can't be bothered to take a bag,I hope the next loose one curls round yer front hub an punts ya into the nearest ditch.Stop whining and take your own bags with you, - my company will VERY HAPPILY take your 5p and use it to further global expansion (and pay my wages).

The welsh thing is complete greenwash.
Ask yourself this. How much does a carrier bag weigh? Well my nice JS Orange ones come in at 5g on my scales. So I would need approx 200 to weigh a kilo.
Now we all know that carrier bags are made from the same stuff as petrol, oil...lovely sticky black stuff.

Now petrol has a specific gravity of approx .74 so a kilo of fuel will get you 1.35 litres.
Assuming you have an average car, lets say 40mpg, then that 1.35 litres is going to get you 12.1miles or 19.4km if you are under 30 years old.

So remember that that 1.35litres of fuel could have made 200 carrier bags. Thats 200 carrier bags for every 19.4km you drive.

To put it another way you car uses the equivalent of one carrierbag for every 100m you drive the ****in thing!

Charging for carrier bags is greenwash at its worst. Until we stop sucking up huge amounts of stored dinosaur juice and wasting it on stuff then we really are wasting our time.

Give me free carrier bags, and let me drive a little less as a result

[and breath]

Give me free carrier bags, and let me drive a little less as a result

sorry ? how does being motivated to re use carrier bags or use a reusable alternative mean that you will automatically drive more ?

I do reuse carrier bags. What I am saying is that in the grand scheme of things its a complete waste of time to worry about using a few carrier bags while we continue to use vast amounts of the same stuff moving large heavy metal boxes (which I am very guilty of doing).

We use carrier bags as our kitchen bin. If I don't get them free, I'm going to have to buy some. Net environmental saving - nil.

I'm more for the reduced litter argument than bringing global warming to an end a week sooner, hopefully it'll be one less piece of needless packaging I'll see in bushes/trees/forestry car parks/national parks...etc

Could have been an interesting thread if people had ignored CM.

or not started calling him names, or not start making unsubstantiated claims, or not started making up things about him.

I'm for it. It'll be slightly annoying when I forget to bring the reusable bags, but then it'll give me something to remember.

Those Bag for Life things...never realised how good they were til I got a voucher for some freebie ones a couple of years ago. 5 or 6 of them will carry about £80 of shopping and fit nicely in the trolley and the boot, and when I can't park near my house, it only takes a couple of trips to carry it all in and I still have feeling in my fingers afterwards. And I can walk to the smaller closer supermarket half a mile away and still buy a decent amount of stuff without having to struggle on the way back home or triple bag anything with sharp corners 🙂

CharlieMungus said:

You're a moron.

Quite apt that, about Wales. You just called him a carrot. 😀

scratch, I agree that any stuff litteing the outdoors is an eyesore, however I don't think that litter is what is driving this Welsh policy.
If it was litter then how about 3p on a canned drink, and 10p on a pizza box and 20p on a styrofoam takaway box. Oh and 2p on every piece of candy packaging. That would cover most of what I see littering the streets of Leeds. Don't see many carrier bags.

I am all for saving the planet and cutting litter, but carrier bags is NOT where to start, the only thing it reduces is middle class guilt.

and 12 pence on every syringe

[b]CHB - Member
If it was litter then how about 3p on a canned drink, and 10p on a pizza box and 20p on a styrofoam takaway box. Oh and 2p on every piece of candy packaging. That would cover most of what I see littering the streets of Leeds. Don't see many carrier bags.

Posted 7 minutes ago # Report-Post[/b]

TESCO, are slowly installing machines at their recycling banks at cart parks, that pay out clubcard points for recycling cans and plastic bottles.

CHB - Member
The welsh thing is complete greenwash.

For someone who clearly has a vague grasp of mathematics, you've exhibited some astounding stupidity if you think it's just the oil in the bag itself that's the reasoning. Sure, it's a small part of it, as is the much larger amount required to provide the energy for the manufacture of said bag. What's the issue is the damage they cause to the environment directly.

An obvious example is that when floating in the ocean, to a turtle, they look pretty much like a jellyfish....

That would cover most of what I see littering the streets of Leeds.

Can we start recycling fag ends?

[url= http://onemoregeneration.org/2011/03/13/killer-plastic-bags-choke-rare-leatherback-sea-turtle/ ]a perspective[/url]

An obvious example is that when floating in the ocean, to a turtle, they look pretty much like a jellyfish..

Yeah! Obvious!

Where does the money go?

charidee mate!

all for it, should go further and make all the money go to litter picking / recycling / tree planting / "green" charities and schemes.

That's nothing, they cose way more over here in Ireland.

then you should come here and buy your plastic bags

or think of the turtles...

Zokes, thanks for your affectionate and reasoned reply.
You are right I didn't include the energy to make the bag.
I do know enough about polyethylene production and extruded PE films to know that the energy input needed to make the bag is less than the amount of material in the bag. But lets assume its the same. So now you can drive your car 200m for the energy impact of a carrier bag.

As for the turtles, well I shop at Sainsburys, and frankly if the little ninja ****ers can't see a bright orange JS bag then I suggest Darwin is at work.

They can see them, it's just that they think they are yummy jellyfish

Do you get orange jellyfish with writing on?

No, but the bags float upside down and so the turtles can't read them

Oh thats OK then, mine are always thrown away with Labrador poo in the bottom, so they would be the right way up, and probably sink.
Just googled, there are orange jellyfish! None look like a JS carrierbag.

On a more sensible note, can anyone quantify the effect on UK carrierbags entering the oceans of the world? Let alone killing Turtles? Compared with the brutal fishing methods employed accross the world I suspect the effect is minimal, but am happy to see evidence if someone has it.

The other thing to consider with all plastics is the effect of micronised plastics in the foodchain.

Still compared with the vast amounts of fuel and other plastic crud we use I stand by the point that carrierbags are just a sop to calm middleclass guilt.

Orange check.
Writing check.
Plastic check.
Would you? 😉

[img] [/img]

Ok, back to the B&Q issue, i accept, I'd pay 5 pence to put my tools in that.

Yes, I would happily throw her into the ocean to be consumed by invertebrates. Bony runt would probably sink though.

....and definately not a bag for life.

Following on from the turtles bit...

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html

I [i]can[/i] see the point of charging for plastic bags. And if it reduces the number full of dogshit tied to hedges all the better. I [i]can't,[/i] however, see the point of charging for paper ones. I mean, they're already biodegradable, as soon as it rains they start to disintegrate. Seems utterly stupid.

until Walmart stop giving them out then there is no point over here.I did some shopping in one the other week and for a medium sized shop the checkout lady bagged my shopping into 30 bags!!!!! one kitchen roll was in its own bag so was a single bottle of Pepsi and so on. Wales isn`t really going to make that much difference

zokes - Member
...An obvious example is that when floating in the ocean, to a turtle, they look pretty much like a jellyfish....

Is that why there are no Welsh turtles now? 🙂

It's just another tithe to Gaia.

I was so pissed off for so long that a couple of days later, i dropped by on the way home, picked up loads of little packets of stuff from around the shop, went they tried to charge me 5p for the bag, I told them I wouldn't buy it and so could carry the stuff and walked out.

without having to faff about with the free bags, and a lot more people bringing their own or just chucking back in trolley, I was banging stuff through the till at 22 items per min instead of about the usual 19 yesterday. That's quite an increase. Makes it easier for me as a checkout chick. The supermarkets don't have to pay for the production of the free bags anymore as this is taken out of the bag charge. They are laughing!

Well that should be a nice little earner for the supermarkets. I bet they cots a fraction of a penny each for them. Is anyone meant to believe that they will count how many they have sold and pass the full amount onto charity?

IF people do stop using the bags then the supermarket will still win as it won't be buying and transporting them round the world.

IF people do stop using the bags then the supermarket will still win as it won't be buying and transporting them round the world.