My post last week about shopping bags made me consider the question of paying for shopping bags.
Do you think supermarkets in particular should be openly charging us for plastic bags to carry home our shopping? Of course, they already charge us for them in the price of the goods, but I’m talking about a fee per bag charged to those who use a plastic bag.
Some places, Aldi comes to mind, already have a policy of not providing bags automatically as part of their pricing structure.
So what would be the advantages of charging us for bags?
- we would have a financial reason to remember to bring bags with us
- we would get reminders about the bigger price of plastic bags to the environment
- the price of reusable bags would suddenly seem greater value
- theoretically, supermarket prices would have to come down as they couldn’t hide bag costs in the product prices
- there would be fewer plastic bags flying around carparks and streets, and less landfill
- we would have fewer plastic bags cluttering up our houses
On the down side, it would feel like an extra expense when out shopping - but it is of course an avoidable expense if you bring your own bags! ANd some of us would have to find alternative bin liners!
Just as an interesting aside, did you know that China uses as many plastic bags in a week as Australia does in a year? That is a LOT of bags! Yet, the Chinese Government is working to have plastic bags banned within 6 months - that is, from June this year, Chinese shops will not be allowed to hand out free plastic shopping bags.
Australia is heading for a similar ban in 2009, but maybe we should bring it in sooner, too. Or maybe phase it on with supermarkets charging first and smaller retailers following a few months later.
It will be very interesting to see how charging for bags will impact on the number of bags used.
But I go back to my original question - do you think we should be charged for plastic bags at the shops, or not? And what do you think is a reasonable price per bag to pay?
