Ban Plastic Bags?

[Flummery]

I carry 4 of my large home-made fabric shopping bags - they fold up and I put 3 inside the 4th. they hold the equivalent of about 10 plastic bags. When I reach the checkout and start putting my stuff on the conveyor I have to ask the assistant not to start packing for me. They want to get you through quickly so they start packing in poly bags while you are still unpacking onto the belt.
It's a mind-set really I keep my purse inside the nest of bags so I can't go shopping without them!
Love the knitting pattern by the way Seahorse. I've not come across the turkish stitch before.

[piskieinboots]

in addition to the plastic bags issue I was in Waitrose the other day and for once was almost speechless....

....a shelf of melons, each one wrapped in a plastic net (think green plastic netting of bird food type) and as it that wasn't bad enough....a plastic handle on the melon.....that'd be the type of melon with a thick skin that you need a machett to cut......

I never plastic bag carrots, parsnips etc etc when buying - I get odd looks from the Waitrose set and the check-out staff but care not do I

[kirsty b]

I'm all for charging - but I fear I'll hear "rip-off Britain" from the masses.

I don't see the problem with charging, Aldi have charged for bags for years.

[kirsty b]

I think a charge then a ban is porobably the way to go.

I find it disappointing that in many shops I still have to say 'I've got my own bag... no, really, I've got one here... no, I'd like to use my own, thanks' I'm sure that as mentioned above it's the advertising potential that the big companies don't want to let go of

I've got a pattern to knit a string bag but haven't tried it yet!

JGibson: Turkish String Bag

I used to subscribe to Prima mag and one month they had a pattern to make a reusable bag out of the carrier bags that so many people have cluttering up their homes. I think you cut the carriers into thick strips then used a basic knitting stitch and big needles to make the sides and then used more plastic strips to sew them together before using a similar method to make some handles.

[OverWyreGrower]

We have various canvas and jute bags, and also some "bags for life" from supermarkets that we use to go shopping.

I was happily amused by the fact that in our little village shops, several of them now sell their own printed sturdy canvas bags (advertising the butchers, cheese shop, co-op, and veg shop)

Any carrier bags we do take, go on to be recycled in my sisters pet shop. She refuses to buy bags to give out to customers, so now, a lot of her regular customers bring in the carrier bags from their shopping for her to use.

[moggssue]

I'm happy with a ban or charging - the great educated masses seem to need a touch more educating and encouragement. I sometimes have online deliveries from Tesco and even tho I have a 'no bags' request with them, its surprising what does actually come in a bag?! When out shopping I take my own big shopper - okay, I look like my granny, but I like to think Im doing a bit to help, and not cluttering up my drawer with useless plastic bags as well!!

[Polly Fouracre]

I can remember the times when you had to take your basket/shopping bag to the shops or carry things home in your arms.Also,if one was sent for eggs and Mother hadn't remembered to put a (china) basin in the bag they were put in a brown paper bag and woe betide if any were broken on the way home!!
I always use a linen or recently a Tesco jute bag(though have you noticed they are lined with plastic,seems they can't quite give it up!!) and take all plastic food bags with me to put fruit and veg in. These too can be used time and again.
What,in those days did people use as dog-poo bags? I don't seem to remember anyone picking up after their dogs.One lady who walks her Golden Retriever along our road has a bundle of newspaper under her arm,good for her.
I always use nappy-sacks or(for the larger dogs)pedal bin liners though as I rarely walk dogs on the road I don't feel too bad about that.
Also,I try always not to buy food that is packed in plastic.All plastic meat trays are used and re-used as seed trays,in fact we have decided that we will buy no more meat from supermarkets and ask the butcher to just put it in paper.
I have no qualms about taking purchases out of a plastic carrier bag and telling the assistant that it isn't needed.If one isn't prissy about it then no offence is taken.

[Paul Wagland]

I think charging is a great idea - I'd make it 50p or £1 per bag so people really paid attention, but the bags would always be strong enough to be reusable.

Things like this should be made law, rather than waiting for the retailer to pick up on public opinion. As Wayne says, 'the masses' might not like it, but people very often look for what's easy rather than what's right - and that's no basis for development.

[Winged one]

Over the water here, we have had a tax on plastic bags for a few years now (it was 12c and its now 22c) - people have ended up using mainly reuseable bags and most non-supermarket shops now provide paper bags as standard (including M&S!).

I had already been using bags for life which are great - OH and I both have a set of them in our cars so there are no excuses. There are various kinds here - lots of large heavy plastic ones, but the most popular are quite strong and square ones with a flat base - you can fit four in a square in the trolley perfectly (the supermarket I go to most often has a system where you can scan your shopping and pack your bags as you go around the shop, so that's what I do - pay for everything at the end and you get rechecked every once in a while on a spot check when everything is rescanned at checkout).

Most of my bags have been in used for up to 10 years now. The bag that I reserve for meat is a single one I brought back from hols in France 4 years ago (so readily identifiable), so I don't mind not getting a new bag for that.

Most supermarkets still have plastic bags for those who need them, but there would be far less use of them than previously. And so many people bring reusable bags everywhere, or are so used to the idea of using less now, that they either have their own bag or use another bag already acquired in another shop to take a lot of things in other shops now rather than getting a enw bag (even paper). And most shops are relatively happy with that - I rarely get challenged about not taking a bag anyway once the goods are in A bag and not loose in my hands.

[Alison]

I used to subscribe to Prima mag and one month they had a pattern to make a reusable bag out of the carrier bags that so many people have cluttering up their homes. I think you cut the carriers into thick strips then used a basic knitting stitch and big needles to make the sides and then used more plastic strips to sew them together before using a similar method to make some handles.

My mum's made one, it took a LOT of plastic bags and she ended up begging them from all her friends, especially if they were a funky colour! The bag is quite good but I don't think she'll be doing another one

[HeyWayne]

What,in those days did people use as dog-poo bags? I don't seem to remember anyone picking up after their dogs.

Which is why you don't see white dog poos anymore.

[murray]

I do miss the white dog poo

[scared55]

I do miss the white dog poo

There's some outside my front gate from neighbour's dog. Would you like me to bundle some up for you?

Which reminds me - it would be so good to be in a band these days. I've never known a time when there have been as many wagons to jump onto.

[bubblewrap]

We use our plastic bags to put our rubbish in before putting it into the wheelie bin or we give them to our corner shop.
Ps we have never had problems such as maggots,rodents or bad smells with our wheelie bin.

[HeyWayne]

I do miss the white dog poo

...but you still step in the brown?