As of this week, I’m carrying two “bags for life” in my bag each day I know I’m going to the supermarket, but safe in the knowledge I can always take a disposable bag if I need to carry more, or if I need to shop unexpectedly. I have half a kitchen cupboard packed full of disposable bags which will take a long time to use up. But I’ll be very annoyed if they are banned at just the moment my supply runs out. I have to add that the disposable bags were often in holes by the time I got home – partly the reason I’m stopping using them.

Tesco have a good scheme whereby they give clubcard points to people who re-use their bags. Other supermarkets should consider this. However, my local Tesco is about a 10-minute walk from where I live, on an estate where lots of other people live. There is a nice foot/cycle path leading to it, yet I don’t see many people use it. The car park is often full. Why can’t they introduce a green clubcard scheme for people who don’t come by car? Perhaps the logical solution is to charge drivers 20p per disposable bag, but to offer them free to people on foot.

Shh…. Gordy might be listening.

With reference to the wider issue addressed by John’s post, there’s no point in me tackling it when it has already been done so well by Merrick, at U-Know!

I think the point is succinctly expressed by this paragraph…
The continued overconsumption of plastic bags is squandering vast quantities of the oil from which they’re made, it is polluting land and waterways for millennia to come, killing huge number of birds, fish and other wildlife, and all for no good reason whatsoever. There is no real benefit to using new bags. Taking bags with you is not heavy, bulky, complicated, difficult or cumbersome. There is simply no need to get new bags every time. If we can’t get our heads round something as effort-free and obviously beneficial as this, what chance of getting our heads round the things that will take some real sacrifice?

Even then, when you’ve been robbed of your ice cream by a seagull in St Ives they lose your sympathy a bit. Death-by-carrier-bag is too good for them.

You also highlight the cost of production of paper bags over plastic, which is fair, but ignore the efficacy of cloth/canvas bags, we have several now, they fold easily, are easily stored and can be carried effectively, re-used perpetually.

“if your shopping is done as part of a public transport commute [work -> shop -> home] … you’ve got a problem if plastic bags are banned … carrying a Bag For Life wherever you go on the off-chance you might want to do some shopping at some point is hardly practical.”

Why not? I used to do it when I worked in Westminster—I had a shoulder bag that I carried my book, any sandwiches I needed and a few other essentials, plus a few bags. I’d regularly stop off at Wimbledon Sainsburys, do my shop then get the bus back to Raynes Park, never caused me a problem and carrying a bunch of foldable bags in a small shoulder bag is hardly an inconvenience.

Echoing Jennie’s comment on Sunny’s post, she regularly takes shopping bags to work and goes into the shops on the way home, despite us now living barely ten minutes walk from two major supermarkets and a decent high st.

The Mail calls for a ban because the Mail likes to ban things, but a decent bag tax would keep them as an available option but substantially reduce their use in favour of reusable alternatives.

There is of course no reason why parking places cannot also be taxed, n’est ce pas?

My objection is the amount left lying around as litter. Perhaps some for of tax to encourage people to dispose of the sensibly would help.