Carrier bags

I also seem to have mislaid all my "Bags for Life" now, I've no idea where they've gone but I'm guessing that my visiting family have used them to cart stuff home.
I tried to buy some of the specially made woven bags in both Morrisons and Tesco's recently. One shop had none and the other had bags with pathetic handles, it had ripped apart before I'd crossed the car part. And the designs were awful with very little choice. I'll have to do a trawl of local supermarkets to see if I can find something better. At the moment I'm reduced to just one of those nice big Waitrose woven bags with white handles.

When I take things to a charity shop, I either put them in a paper carrier bag, if I have one, a cardboard box, which can be picked up free of charge in a supermarket, or simply off-load them onto the counter of the shop and take my cloth bag back home with me.

Any large quantity of things go into a plastic bin sack.

Havent seen a paper carrier bag for ages.

I am pleased I started this thread and bought myself a roll of pedal bin liners as I have now decluttered to the charity shop a stash of never now used bulky Tupperware containers. Bought in the 70s so probably vintage and worth a little bit more than normal plastic containers. Whoever wants to make a bit of dosh on them is welcome.

I also washed more than a couple of dozen good plastic plant pots and bagged them up ready for a friend who runs charity plant sales. So a good use of half an hour this afternoon. Am on a roll.

I get quite a few paper carrier bags. Last one was John Lewis.

I used to keep carrier bags but found they disintegrated after a while.

Azalea99

I used to keep carrier bags but found they disintegrated after a while.

Yes, they go into shreds if kept too long.

I used to live opposite a supermarket & would pop in for 2L milk (the ones with handles) quite often. Staff knew I lived 30 yds away but every time they would put it in a plastic bag after scanning it & every time I took it out & handed the carrier back politely declining it. Despite this happening time after time with the same people, they kept doing it till the day I moved.I wondered if they got a bonus for every sack of carriers they gave out!

The day before the carrier bag charge came in, we were shopping in Sainsburys.

They had a huge pile of their free orange carrier bags on the till, and the assistant told us to take as many as we liked as they would be chucked the next day.

We took a lot and used them as bin liners for ages, wish we still had some.

I do miss the usefulness and convenience of the supermarket plastic bags but I was brought up short a few years ago when I read somewhere that every single piece of plastic I and everybody else on this earth has ever touched is still polluting our world. Even the annoying shards left after a bag disintegrates leave their unseen mark in micro plastics floating around in the oceans of the world.
This knowledge still doesn’t stop me grumbling to myself though, as I shove my new jumper in my bag next to the packet of bacon!

NanaBabs

If I go out shopping planning on buying an item of clothing, (not a frequent occurrence) I take an unused bag previously from a clothes item to put my purchase in, not one of my grocery bags.

I have about 4 roll up woven bags in my handbag. One is specifically for clothes and is used for no other purpose.

If I buy any clothes, I just pull this bag out of my handbag and put the clothes in there, knowing the bag is clean inside and will not damage my clothes.

NanaBabs1

I do miss the usefulness and convenience of the supermarket plastic bags but I was brought up short a few years ago when I read somewhere that every single piece of plastic I and everybody else on this earth has ever touched is still polluting our world. Even the annoying shards left after a bag disintegrates leave their unseen mark in micro plastics floating around in the oceans of the world.
This knowledge still doesn’t stop me grumbling to myself though, as I shove my new jumper in my bag next to the packet of bacon!

Not just our oceans and rivers but now it’s in us

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct67tz

It’s scary, isn’t it Petra?
And yes, I do carry rolled up canvas shoppers, spare packaging, etc, but there’s a limit! If I know I’m likely to buy more than usual, I wear a cross body bag and a backpack. Not quite the sartorial look I was aiming for!

The orange Sainsbury plastic carrier bags have been in continued usage by that store for their Home Deliveries. Just in the last couple of weeks have they stopped using these (assume they have finally run out), and the couple of frozen items were in plain white carrier bags.

RosieandherMaw

Shop online with Ocado- they provide them free (or used to)

Ocado charge 10p a bag - but you can hand them back at your next delivery and they refund 10p for each bag.

SueDoku

RosieandherMaw

Shop online with Ocado- they provide them free (or used to)

Ocado charge 10p a bag - but you can hand them back at your next delivery and they refund 10p for each bag.

I shop with Ocado and don't understand the need to put everything in numerous carrier bags.. I return them with the next shop and wonder what on earth they do with all these used bags.. recycle I hope

Well I suppose if you weren’t planing to food shop you have to ferry the stuff in something either that or go without!

I have a shoulder handbag bag and often stuff clothing purchases in that (M&S only have the paper ones on offer in clothing dept.) but their strong bag for life type has shoulder straps, so very useful for those who walk 🚶

Charity shops here are always glad to have bags, if you don’t need them.

I mostly use a couple of heavy cotton shopping bags (with nice broad handles that don’t cut into your hand or shoulder) but do occasionally have to buy a plastic bag. Our kitchen bin is small enough for supermarket bag liners, though.

M & S use paper carriers only now.

grannybuy

M & S use paper carriers only now.

When we returned from holiday last year, stopped off at an M&S outlet to buy a ready meal for tea.

Shocked to be charged 25p for a paper carrier, but no choice as needed a bag and our cloth ones were sitting in the suitcase in the taxi.

I used to use supermarket carrier bags as bin liners for smaller bedroom /bathroom bins . I now use a bigger bin liner and go around the house emptying.
I volunteer in a charity shop and we get loads of bags which we reuse when customers don’t have a bag .
I don’t know if this happens in other shops but when donors want their bags back , it’s always when we’re really busy !!!

I started accumulating carrier bags some years ago when even though supermarkets and other shops were still freely handing them out, there were rumours even then that they were going to be phased out.

For a while there were the chargeable strong bags for life which seemed a sensible compromise.
I still have quite a stash of those.

I've got several bags for life, some of them are getting very tatty. If I remember correctly, the idea was that you can take them back and exchange them for a new one when they wear out. Is that right and has anyone actually done it?

That was the case for a time GrandmaKT, at least in Sainsbury’s and Waitrose but they have stopped doing that now.

Well I take stuff to the charity shop in a variety of things;

bin bags
Old IKEA bags
Those large paper carriers that some shops give you
Cardboard boxes
Some shops where I live give you horrid bags for life free when you buy something expensive - think very flimsy cloth or black emblazoned with the store name - so they go to the charity shop too

Currently filling a large IKEA paper bag