Carrier bags

Do any of you remember when Sainsbury's used to give you a penny off your shopping for every bag you re-used. I can't remember exactly how it worked - maybe it was via nectar points. I always re-used bags in Sainsburys and when they got tatty I used them for bin liners and got new ones when I shopped elsewhere. As they say "Look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves"!

When I visited my DD in Dubai she had a huge quantity as she gets all her groceries delivered after ordering online. She didn't know what to do with them so I brought a huge stash back as my suitcase wasn't full on the homeward journey. They were all 'bag for life' type and I'm still using the first couple over a year later. I gave a lot to the food bank as they need a lot to fill the bags for their clients.
I do miss the old style thinner bags though for some uses. I get a supply of community magazines delivered every 2 months which I then deliver locally. They arrive in a suitably 'thin' bag so I keep those for using where a 'bag for life ' is too big. I still have a few of the old ones stashed away but most are starting to become brittle so get used for wrapping rubbish mostly.

Yes, I have taken a Bag for Life back to supermarket and they do replace it. I usually carry a couple of foldaway ones though.

JenniferEccles

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

When mine get tatty they go to the charity shop and I get a new one.

Some seem to last longer than others - some seem to crack when exposed to 60C+ temperature swings in the car.

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

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

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?

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 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 !!!

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.

M & S use paper carriers only now.

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.

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 🚶

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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 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!

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 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!

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 keep carrier bags but found they disintegrated after a while.