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Sounds like the price of reusable bags is too low where you are. There needs to be a price floor to discourage single-use. Eg 50 cents minimum per bag? In the

Sounds like the price of reusable bags is too low where you are. There needs to be a price floor to discourage single-use. Eg 50 cents minimum per bag? In the UK we charge 5p for a single use bag, although lots of stores now only sell multi-use bags at 10p or more. I think it’s making a difference, I now actively carry a couple reusable bags around “just in case” I decide to visit a supermarket or spur of the moment shopping. I now hardly ever buy plastic bags (single & multi use), and from what I’ve read, overall the country has seen a massive reduction in plastic bag waste: down from 140/year/person to 25/year/person [1] (this doesn’t track sales of multi-use plastic bags though afaik) 1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carrier-bag-charge-summary-of-data-in-england/single-use-plastic-carrier-bags-charge-data-in-england-for-2016-to-2017 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carrier-bag-charg...

user5994461 7y ago
The ban of plastic bag is a joke in the UK. The supermarket gives you the same shitty bag that's tore apart in 3 uses, except it's called reusable and you have to pay for it. There is only maybe Lidl that has reusable bags, if they still do them, and that's half a pound each.
- yardstick 7y ago
  I’ve got a variety of 50p bags from Asda, Waitrose, Tescos that I still use more than a year after I bought them. Asda also a bag for life deal, I have swapped a couple out in the past due to tears (years after originally buying them). I assume but cannot verify Asda recycles the broken bags.
hedora 7y ago
In countries where they actually banned disposable shopping bags, it was even worse. People end up buying more trash bags (since they had small trash cans to fit the disposable bags), which are thicker, and something like 10x less efficient in garbage removal per pound of plastic than the banned bags. (I’m guessing your stats don’t count trash bags, unless people in the UK use fewer than one a week). On its own, that was enough to increase plastic in the waste stream. If you add in other problems (like buying “reusable” bags, then throwing them out), it gets even worse. So, you need to ban all plastic bags for these measures to actually help.
- yardstick 7y ago
  Interesting, do you have a source for this?

user5994461 7y ago

The ban of plastic bag is a joke in the UK. The supermarket gives you the same shitty bag that's tore apart in 3 uses, except it's called reusable and you have to pay for it. There is only maybe Lidl that has reusable bags, if they still do them, and that's half a pound each.

yardstick 7y ago
I’ve got a variety of 50p bags from Asda, Waitrose, Tescos that I still use more than a year after I bought them. Asda also a bag for life deal, I have swapped a couple out in the past due to tears (years after originally buying them). I assume but cannot verify Asda recycles the broken bags.

hedora 7y ago

In countries where they actually banned disposable shopping bags, it was even worse. People end up buying more trash bags (since they had small trash cans to fit the disposable bags), which are thicker, and something like 10x less efficient in garbage removal per pound of plastic than the banned bags. (I’m guessing your stats don’t count trash bags, unless people in the UK use fewer than one a week). On its own, that was enough to increase plastic in the waste stream. If you add in other problems (like buying “reusable” bags, then throwing them out), it gets even worse. So, you need to ban all plastic bags for these measures to actually help.

yardstick 7y ago
Interesting, do you have a source for this?