With regards to the plastic bag surcharge, this is a policy that has largely worked in some parts of Europe as far as I can see. They charge typically 10c for

With regards to the plastic bag surcharge, this is a policy that has largely worked in some parts of Europe as far as I can see. They charge typically 10c for a single use bag, and 30c for a reusable bag[0] (which is much heavier plastic indeed). And people actually reuse the bags, or bring their own cloth bags, to the supermarket. Additionally, single use plastics have been mostly banned and I can't recall seeing any (apart from straws, which were banned more recently) in the last 15 years. This was met with some grumbling early on, but people got used to it rather quickly. [0] To give you an idea about how sturdy these 30c reusable bags are, I routinely use these to transport car parts (like brake disks & calipers, or suspension parts), fluids, power tools, or even lead batteries around.