A bag full of confusion

Unless we’re buying a goldfish. Or fish and chips. Though I’ve never eaten chips out of a plastic bag, have you?

We also won’t be charged for a plastic bag if we’re buying spuds, or any other goods contaminated by soil, such as plants. And we can get a plastic bag for nothing if we’re buying ginger because it’s a rhizome apparently, which means it’s a plant stem that grows underground.

In addition, you can get a free plaggy bag if you want to buy an unwrapped blade such as an axe or razor blades. Though why on earth you’d pick up unwrapped razor blades and toss them in your shopping trolley, heaven only knows.

And if you’re buying uncooked poultry, meat or fish, you can have a free bag for that too.

Confusing isn’t it? It’s going to make for some interesting conversations at supermarket checkouts. You can imagine it can’t you? You’re busy packing your shopping like a whirling dervish, while the goods speed towards you along the conveyor belt because the checkout operator is scanning your stuff at the speed of an Olympian.

Get your plastic bag, 5p a pop...

There’s a big queue behind you, the kids are yattering away in front of you and in the fluster to get packed up and gone you put a packet of biscuits and a loaf of bread in the same bag as your raw chicken fillets. Gotcha! That’ll be an extra 5p please… You can, of course, take your own bags with you to avoid the charge of shame at the checkout and many of us already do. But according to a survey by the Environment Agency, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the thin plastic bags so beloved by supermarkets are actually cleaner to produce than paper bags, those heavy-duty plastic ‘bags for life’ and textile bags.

But long life bags have to be used again and again – more than 100 times in the case of a cloth bag – if they are to be more environmentally friendly than your bog standard carrier bag. Which, of course, you can use again and again too, providing your spuds haven’t dropped out of the bottom or your razor blades haven’t slashed it… As for home deliveries, most of the supermarket chains will be offering ‘bagless’ deliveries (does this mean tins of beans and bog rolls lined up on your doorstep, then?) or charging a standard flat fee for the use of plastic carriers.

Though some will charge 5p per bag but give you it back if you use the bag again on your next home delivery shop, though how on earth that will be policed heaven only knows.

And what or who gains from all this confusion? Well, the environment, for a start. Last year in England we used 7.64 billion supermarket bags, which is 200 million up on 2013. There’s no doubt they’re a blot on the landscape, as they tumbleweed down our streets, get snarled up around the feet of cattle in the countryside and damage our wildlife, seas and coastline.

Wales banned free plastic bags in 2011 and has seen a 71 per cent drop in usage, with Scotland doing the same in last year and Northern Ireland the year before. They too have seen a drop in the number of bags used – 12.8 per cent north of the border and 42.6 per cent in Northern Ireland.

According to the government the new charge is expected to save £60 million in cleaning up litter and £13 million in carbon savings. But the money charged to consumers will go to the supermarkets and stores, creating a nice little earner on top of their already handsome profits.

The stores can choose what they do with the money raised from the charge but they are expected to plough it into good causes. Which is fine just so long as they do… Finally, back to those fish and chips. Next time you’re down at the chippy and you want a plaggy bag to take them home in, make sure you get them served on an open tray rather than fully wrapped. You might be firkling about picking out your one-of-each from out of the bottom of your plastic bag, but at least it will have been free…