Bags of views over charge

A new law which imposes a 5p charge for all single-use plastic carrier bags came into force this week. Here are a selection of comments about the change from our website, KentOnline

Cleanqueen: I think this is a good thing. Every other European country charges for plastic carrier bags. The way I look at it is that we have been lucky to receive free bags in the past and now it’s time to start paying if we want one. We just need to get into the habit of taking a couple of bags with us when we go shopping and if we don’t, big deal ...it’s only five pence!

TonyChartham: About time! Many other countries including Scotland, Ireland and Wales have had this law for years and transitioned without a problem. We use 7.6 million single-use carriers a year most of which are used once and thrown away many carelessly – now that is downright wasteful. I have been using reusable bags for supermarket shopping for a few years now and always carry a cloth bag in my pocket when I go into town shopping; its quite an easy habit to make. In the end nobody has to pay the charge if you reuse. Always carry bags in your car, take bags on the bus, and carry a bag in your pocket and nobody makes a penny and the environment benefits. What’s not to like?

Psiman: I actually need my grocery shopping in bags due to disabilities but they don’t even think about that as there is no exemption for disabled people, who will be forced to pay for bags. I even re-use my bags and recycle the old ones to the delivery driver! I guess they don’t care if you recycle them or not as there is no exemption for that either, even though this is the primary goal of the scheme.

pleb55942: So our money is to be given to these ‘charities’, many of whom have been involved in pressurised selling scams recently. Others are paying banker-type salaries to executives, hiring plush offices in the best parts of London and awarding mega bonuses to employees. This whole scam stinks and appears to be yet another device to get our money into the hands of dishonest scam artists from government and the private sector.

HooeyPhooey: I don’t think it’s the carrier bags that are the real issue, just look at how much plastic packaging is used on the products we buy. Just about everything is shrink-wrapped these days. At least carrier bags are reusable. I guess I am going to buy more plastic rubbish bags as I will soon run out of carrier bags as rubbish bags. I wonder if charities will be charged 5p for every bag they put through our doors for clothes collections. How may of those go straight in the recycling bin?

lewisfoxy1: As food retailers, cardboard boxes are freely available anyway if you’d like them, even if they’re not at the front of the shop – if you ask a member of staff they’ll give you some. I’ve seen signs proclaiming this in a few shops and personally, as long as they’re recycled after their use I think this is equally a good idea.

SteveRainham: When you think about it though, banning plastic carriers isn’t going to change the amount of plastic in the world as it’s effectively a by-product of oil refining. The only way to reduce the amount of plastic sloshing about will be to cut our fossil fuel use. Now that’s the bitter pill we really need to take. It makes charging for carrier bags seem a bit trivial now, almost like it’s being done in lieu of taking meaningful action to protect the environment. Why not just ban them altogether? I’m sure humanity can manage to adapt to this one tiny, tiny little change to our habits.

IAMobserve: Surely it’s a win-win? No guilty feelings for the customer and extra profit for charities! I’ll definitely feel happier about using more bags.

Kentishman: This really is no problem to most people. Supermarkets sell a range of bags for life that are relatively cheap, and here’s the hook, it’s a bag for life!