Jayne Dowle: Time that cheap plastic bags were binned for good

Frankly, I don’t much care whether that exam-stressed teenager relishes his paprika burgers or whether nana’s magic soup cures all ills. It’s a load of flannel designed to flog groceries and guilt-trip people who eat ready meals. I do, however, care very much about the environment, wildlife and saving money.

If Tesco wants to wear its conscience and feel-good credentials on its very-influential sleeve, this is definitely the way to go. The ban will come into force at the end of this month. It follows a 10-week trial in three locations which has led to a 25 per cent cut in bag sales as shoppers opted for a largely-recycled “bag for life” or brought their own.

I trust that the countryside around Aberdeen, Dundee and Norwich, where the trial took place, is now rather more clean and tidy. Fewer plastic bags strewn in hedgerows. Less chance of dogs and livestock choking. Landfill sites feeling the difference. And rivers and streams allowed to run free to the sea without taking such detritus with them directly into the stomachs of precious sea creatures. Experts estimate 
that plastic is eaten by 31 species of marine mammals and more than 100 species of sea birds across the world. Think how far that plastic bag could float in a year.

I don’t think I need to remind you about those whales dying in agony, their entire intestines wrapped around with plastic thrown so carelessly away. Or perhaps I do. When you’re in a hurry it can seem a very long way from the self-serve till to the ocean waves. It’s easy just to shove everything into the cheapest bag possible and make a run for it home.

The fate of that 5p plastic bag you so hastily purchased can seem very insignificant. Yet choosing not to buy it helps the environment in so many ways. For a start, it’s highly likely that it won’t be made from recycled materials, so it’s using up precious resources and energy by simply existing.

It’s also not likely to be bio-degradable, so it will stick around for longer than nana’s soup. Hundreds of years, possibly. And it costs you money personally every time you buy one. Why would any sane person keep shelling out for an item they could pay for just once?

My own attitude towards cheap plastic bags is not only driven by concern for nature and the environment, but thrift. How I remember the fuss when the charge for carrier bags was introduced in October 2015. There was fighting in the aisles (literally in some towns and cities) as shoppers struggled to accept that what was once free would now have to be paid for.

Once the dust had settled I took stock. For years I had collected carrier bags. I had bags of bags all over the house, hoarded through what I now recognise as guilt. I didn’t want to throw them away because it seemed so well, wasteful, in all senses of the word.

I had them in the kitchen, the cellar, even stashed in the bedrooms and bathrooms, where I argued that they might “come in for emergencies”. Well, that 
came in the need to move house, which we did last year. And 
every single carrier bag that didn’t find a use in the packing had to go.

My solution? I distributed them by the sackful to a range of local charity shops, as I discovered carriers are always in short supply for voluntary organisations. And then I reassessed my bag-buying habits, partly because we moved to a smaller house with fewer cupboards to hide them in.

I have refused 5p carrier bags for a year now, and will only buy a 10p “bag-for-life” if absolutely forced. I have, however, indulged in a series of what I like to think of as rather dashing heavy-duty shopping bags decorated with witty slogans which I try my damnedest to remember every time I venture forth.

If a reformed bag-aholic like me can change her ways, there is hope for us all. My first concern is for the environment, but a close second is saving money. I simply cannot see the point in paying over and over again for something I already have.

Sainsbury’s has already banned 5p bags with relatively little fanfare. Tesco is grabbing all the headlines, but in this case that’s no bad thing. Let us hope that now such a major supermarket chain has taken a stance, other retailers take heed. Cheap carrier bags belong in the bin, permanently.