I was horrified

When I was still working at Mystery Shoppers I used to get quite narked at how many of the younger members of staff would come back each lunchtime with new carrier bags, despite our boss having a "posting station" which meant that if you had forgotten your "bag for life" you could help yourself to a bag.

I think it irritated more because it was always the young ones that didn't bother, the older members of staff always seemed to use a recycled bag.

I was also mortified as I was doing a largish shop and didn't have my usual stash of bags in the car with me. My excuse is that we have been moving DD and all her stuff and taken the bags and car seats out so I could put the seats down flat. I won't do that again.

Yes, anno you are right. Photo not bio. But though apparently enough light gets to them in a cupboard for them to disintegrate. But not when they are hanging in hedges, trees and floating in lakes. Does anyone else remember when supermarkets used to have a pile of cardboard boxes at the checkout? We know how to recycle, older GN posters were brought up with it! Pigswill, salvage, returnable bottles. Lots of initiatives not being used.

Its unlikely that retailers will encourage customers to re use bags so long as they can charge for them. If retailers had to pay they would be much more likely to switch to paper or biodegradable bags. Please note I'm only talking about non food use. I'm quite happy to bring my own food shopping bags -not for wet fish or raw meat though!

Doesn't the money go to charity??

M&S hands it over to charity because it's not yet compulsory in England. I don't know what the situation is in the countries where it is compulsory.

Most shops in Scotland donate the 5p's to charity. If there isn't a sign to indicate the charity, I ask.

It's the same in Wales.

As long as supermarkets provide the cheap bags people will 'forget' to bring their own. In France they stopped ages ago....there was no alternative....you HAD to bring your own and you got little sympathy if you had nothing (as holiday makers we quickly had to learn!).

Its not difficult to get into the habit of keeping a supply in the car.....you have to remember to take your handbag/purse so why not a few bags....oh its all so annoying to watch perfectly capable people load up in Morrisons with a trolley load of thin plastic bags...the staff just dole them out unquestioning.....sorry its a bit of a soap box thing for me!

My daughter has a gift shop here. She has to charge 5p even for paper carriers, which I don't agree with - we have enough rain to deal with those quite rapidly. Only certain small paper bags without handles are free. Bags for unwrapped foodstuffs are exempt.

HildaW both Aldi and Lidl (both "foreign" brands) do not supply any free bags, you either take your own or pay.

Yes phoenix....you are right!

To save myself the 'no bag' embarrassment ages ago I bought a 'turtle' string bag....a bit like one's Granny used to have. In our family its called my 'sting vest', anyway its scrunched up in the bottom of my modest sized handbag and has proved very useful over the years!

Most of us are old enough to remember the days when going shopping without a bag was as featherbrained as going skiing without your skis. If you bought a loaf or a pint of milk on impulse you carried it home under your arm, or you kept a string or nylon bag in your pocket or handbag. Many shops sold them cheaply.

At some point carrier bags for the improvident amnesiac became the automatic provision of them for everyone who entered the shop - and the supermarkets soon saw that they could advertise by blazoning their name across them. They then adorned tree branches and shrubberies across the country and choked landfill sites with never-rot torn grey plastic.

It has come full circle - If you can't plan ahead, you pay for something to carry your shopping home. So what's new?

Horrified indeed - and amazed that people have not got the message yet. Here no bags are given- and it is so rare to see anyone shopping without their own bags- that whenever we visit the UK it really is such a shock/surprise! Why oh why- it is really not difficult to take your own bags, surely? Tons and tons that go straight to landfill sites- the UK is going to run out of landfill sites in about 3 years' time- what then?

Here all rubbish is incinerated, there is NO space for landfill.

Just come back from Greece and they dish out bags like sweeties.

We took ours home as we like to wrap detritus before binning.

Maybe the next thing Madame Merkel might put a stop, to as in Germany they are so strict about what goes in which bin and you can be fined

Perhaps for another thread, but I would welcome suggestions as to what the UK will do when it runs out of landfill sites very soon?

From the Independent... in 2010 (so 3 years left at best):

ritain will today be declared the "dustbin of Europe" after warnings that it will run out of landfill sites in less than eight years.

The UK buries more than 18.8 million tonnes of household waste – two million tonnes more than any other EU country. On current trends, British taxpayers will face "fines" of up to £180m a year by 2020 if targets under an EU scheme to reduce the amount of paper, food and garden waste being send to landfill sites are not met. Penalties will be imposed on local authorities but will, in effect, be passed on to residents.

57 million tonnes of rubbish, including industrial waste, are being disposed in landfill sites each year. With 650 million cubic metres of capacity left in the ground – three times the volume of Lake Windermere – the UK will reach its limit by 2018.

Although the amount of rubbish sent to landfill has fallen by a third since 2000, councils say more needs to be done to head off the threat of fines.

Gary Porter, chairman of the Local Government Association's environment board, said: "Householders should be congratulated for the efforts they have made in recent years to increase the amount of rubbish they recycle. But that doesn't change the fact that Britain is fast running out of space to dump rubbish in the ground."

He added: "An area the size of Warwick is already being used to dump Britain's rubbish and unless there are radical changes in the way we produce and dispose of our waste it is estimated we will run out of landfill space in less than eight years time." (= 3 NOW)

Is that what we want for our grandchildren? Mind you, plastic bags won't make a huge difference, I suppose.

Whether plastic bags will make a difference to the huge problem is, I believe, a moot point. What is important is that we try and solve as many problems as possible. It then becomes an incremental thing....one thing leading to another and then hopefully mind-sets will be changed and more and more solutions will be found. I get very het up with people who do not see it as 'their' problem and argue that their lack of environmental action is only a drop in the ocean and therefore not worth the effort.....and don't get me started on what's happening to the sea!

There has never been a time Elegran when we were expected to bring our own bags for buying clothes or other non food items. Clothes would be parcelled up in brown paper and string. All biodegradable. Brown paper supermarket bags were introduced from America and we were weaned off bringing our own food shopping bags in the interests of these supermarkets advertising themselves.

Totally agree Hilda. I imagine a huge number of plastic bags in meditarenean countries and other countries near the sea end up in the water- choking birds, dolphins, whales and many more - absolutely tragic.

Any suggestions from anyone then - what will the UK do when it soon runs out of landfill sites???

We have recycled efficiently before and I'm sure we could do it again if there were a real commitment from national and local government and a combination of rewards and sanctions. Litter is another related problem which costs us £mmm and encourages foxes, seagulls, rats, pigeons and other scavengers.

DH refuses to keep shopping bags in the car so as he does the shopping I end up with a pile of bags to go in the recycling. I don't say anything but oh it does annoy me.

How often do I arrive at one of our 3 local supermarkets with out a carrier from my vast collection or a hessian bag????? Frequently. How often do I arrive at M&S where they charge? Rarely! I can't be the only one like this.

I always carry a bag for life and a folding bag in my handbag, but often when I get to the checkout and say "no, I don't want a bag" (as I rummage for my own) the cashier ignores me and puts the things in a new bag anyway.
I then have to faff about taking everything out and putting it in my own bag [hmmm]