Carrier bags?

Personally, I think that they should be outlawed unless they are biodegradable.

I don't know whether you have ever been out on the open sea in a sailing yacht, but that is where you can see the full impact of these hideous articles.

100's of miles from land, they are everywhere, they kill marine turtles in the thousands. (mistaken for jellyfish).

All over the world they are to be seen littering the roadsides, towns, cities and beaches.

In the countryside they are responsible for the deaths of a wide variety of wildlife and a source of ugliness unprecedented in modern history.

In answer to your question, no, I don't begrudge paying for them.

I've used Onya bags (quick plug http://www.onyabags.co.uk/index.php?crn=205) for years, but have been picking up free bags for life from M&S as they fold flat and fit in my bag better. I'm very happy to see supermarkets taking this problem on as I despair at the numbers of plastic bags that get brought into our house every week despite my best efforts!

A few people have commented that it's just another way for the supermarkets to fleece us for more money which is plainly absurd. M&S are giving them away free at the moment, and Sainsburies did before, and the whole point is that, even if you do pay, you only pay once and the supermarket will replace them when they run out.

What people don't seem to remember is that free plastic bags in supermarkets and elsewhere is a relatively new phenomena - when I was a kid (and I'm not that old) people took a bag or a shopping trolley out shopping as a matter of course!

i begrudge having to pay to advertise their store

there was a near riot in our local (pat hand upon jeans clad backside) last week when they refused to put out ordinary carrier bags as there were hundreds on the self service check outs people were going to those points first collecting a big pile of bags and then going through the tills normally

OK save the planet, but, by not offering the bags, how much of an annual saving will the chains make? and will that be reflected in price cuts? or an increased dividend for the shareholders?

I'm torn with this one because we actually reuse our carrier bags as bin bags.

I don't mind paying for the bag for life (except some of them aren't all that strong - the plastic ones)

I tend to do my 'big shop' on the internet at the moment and you are offered the option to have this with or without bags - it should automatically come without - why do you need the bags with an internet shop?

Plastic carrier bags are going to be phased out so as to protect the environment. Bags for life are a much better idea, as well as being stronger& they are not that expensive, usually under £1. So yes I'm all for bags for life.

Plastic bags should be stopped, but why do we need so many bags?

How did people manage before?

Are we all just shopping too much in the Western world?

What a lot of people are doing where I live, for supermarket shopping, is take the trolley full of groceries to the car & put them in a large basket. [like a laundry basket].

Just carry the whole thing inside & unpack from there, when you get home.

I don't mind, but when I shop I buy a lot of shopping, and the bags for life are NOWHERE NEAR big enough, so it's either ask for carrier bags or pay like £5 in bags for life just to fit all my shopping

I believe carrier bags need to be banned.

Must be banned.

In the rural areas I have seen carrier bags on the trees and in the water ways, they have to be stopped.

Get used to having a proper bag in the car or a cardboard box anything but that non bio freebee.

I don't begrudge it at all, because I have been using the bags for life for years now. The only annoying part is that I use the free ones as bin liners, and whenever I was running low on them I could just use them instead of my bags for life on one weeks shop and it saved me spending money on bin liners.

If we don't get carrier bags any more what do I put my rubbish in at home? Why should we pay for bags for life, we pay enough for everything else in the shop. All we want to do is get it home and get over the shock of how much we have just paid for basic essentials!!

Hi Chipmunk

Carrier bags have a large effect on the environment - simply due to the quantity of them

I would like them to still be available when needed - but a small charge would be fair and could be used to offset the damage they do