Supermarket Plastic bags

[Dave Liquorice]

A decent weekly shop yields over half a dozen supermarket bags. Don't get through anything like that number of bags.

Our council supllied bag takes us a fornight to fill. Only goes out with the recycling collection every two weeks. All it contains is plastic wrappings, everything else goes to recycling or the compost heap.

Half dozen of the check "laundry" bags a number of years ago, still going strong and have at three or four times the capacity of a freebie supermarket bag. As they are fairly rigid and rectangular they sit nicely together in the boot.

No handles so no carrying 2 or 3 in each hand. The give way if they get damp.

[Dave Liquorice]

days.

Stuff still comes in boxes but now it tends to be a display box as well so is of liitle use once one end and top have been removed.

I find that they are of a consistent size and proportion they are far better than than some random selection. The size is OK, if storing books or papers you don't want anything much bigger or it gets too heavy.

[Dave Liquorice]

Labels? Do you not remember the round purple price stamp?

[Clive George]

I know the ones you mean - it's cheap and easy to pack, and a pain to undo.

I've noticed a growing number of companies using cardboard for packaging, and they're getting quite good with it - some pretty fancy shapes.

[docholliday93]

I remember a friend complaining she'd bought a special tool to open those - which came packed in...you've guessed it!

[harryagain]

Only compared with not getting it out of the ground in the first place. Ideally they should be recycled. I dunno why anyone should want plastic supermarket bags. We have permanent cloth bags and never use them. Using plastic bags is just idleness and fuckwittery.

[harryagain]

It's turned off by a photocell automatically as the goods get to the cashier. How else could the system work?

[Bob Minchin]

So presumably you buy bin liners and put those into landfill?

We have a holder specially designed for the supermarket carrier bags so ours get re-used for waste at minimal cost.

Is this legislation really key to the UK survival from its economic problems FFS

[Chris J Dixon]

Hope she didn't buy a pair of special scissors to hack her way in, which were themselves fixed to a backing card with stout cable ties. ;-)

Chris

[news]

I have seen an argument (not sure how valid it is) that paper bags are even worse than plastic for the environment since they are much heavier to transport in bulk (use more diesel etc)

[Sam Plusnet]

Agreed. I was going to reply to the OP that the government introduced this legislation 2 1/2 years ago - it just hasn't happened in your area yet. I grumbled when it first happened, but it's no big deal.

[news]

In the early 80's Kwik Save didn't used to have any prices on the products (shelf edge only), staff had to memorise prices (very occasionally they would have to ask someone on the next till or look them up).

Kwik Save didn't have as many lines as Tesco but it was probably getting on for as many as the current Aldi/Lidl. (Kwik Save occupied the same part of the market as Aldi/Lidl do now - I wonder what happened to them.

[Sam Plusnet]

Yes. What usually happens (e.g. Sainsburys, deliveries in Wales) is they add a nominal charge of 40 pence to your on-line bill to cover the bags - they don't bother to count the actual number used. So if your delivery uses 10-15 bags you're not paying much per bag.

[Adrian]

They went titsup in 2007, but were relaunched in 2012.

[John Williamson]

They also decompose to generate methane in landfill, unless they are burnt, which at least has the benefit of not releasing any fossil carbon into the atmosphere.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think they also use more energy and make more pollution in the manufacturing process.

[John Williamson]

No, it's a sop to the Green lobby. There are,though, some reasonably good reasons for bags to be charged for.

[Jethro_uk]

Not the outbound conveyor - that's controlled by a switch.

[Clive George]

We don't need bin liners. All the waste away from the kitchen is dry or sufficiently non-icky to not be a problem. The compost bin/bucket gets nearly all the icky stuff. A bit goes in the main kitchen bin, which gets tipped into the wheelie bin and doesn't seem to get icky at all.

[Bob Eager]

Ocado collect all of theirs for recycling.

[Bill Wright]

My cooking tastes like shit anyway.

Bill