Single use or bags for life?

A new charge on single use disposable plastic bags comes into force today in Scotland, 5p per bag. It's been widely welcomed and we've had comments from Scottish Wildlife Trust and Marine Conservation Society on our headlines today.  Northern Ireland introduced the charge in April 2013 and bags have not been free in Wales since October 2011 which resulted in an 80% reduction in usage in the first year.

"80% of British shoppers used to put everything into free shopping bags. UK shoppers could go through as many as 60 bags a month. That’s 720 bags a year or more than 43,000 in an average lifetime!"  Carrier Bag Charge Wales website.

It sounds wonderful, decrease use of carrier bags, decrease the amount that is thrown away, decrease the number of bags flapping in trees, decrease the amount that ends up in our seas (and marine wildlife).  However, I am not sure it is entirely without its problems. Many people re-use their single use bags for lots of things particularly as bin-liners, in fact this was considered in a report by the Welsh government

"Impact of the charge on how people handle household waste Three in ten (30%) Welsh and more than four in ten (46%) Scottish respondents indicated that they do actively use Single Use Carrier Bags (SUCB) as bin liners, whilst 83% Welsh and 75% Scottish households [also] use purpose made bin liners. Prior to the introduction of the SUCB charge in Wales, 46% of Welsh households used SUCB as bin liners and 74% used purpose made liners. Therefore it can be seen that use of SUCB for waste purposes has decreased (by 15%) since the charge (although a causal effect is unproven), whilst the purchase of purpose made bin liners has increased."  Read the report in full (PDF)

It's this additional manufacture and usage of purpose made bin liners that concerns me.  At Tesco today everyday liners are 1p each, significantly cheaper than a 5p SUCB but they're made of new plastic, standard liners are 4p each again cheaper than SUCB and also from new plastic, the only small biodegradable ones are 12p each - more than ten times the cost of the cheapest. Many major supermarkets use oxo-degradeable / recycled / biodegradable plastic for their SUCB, so those which are reused as liners are more landfill friendly (can there be such a thing) although are less climate friendly*  than the standard liners and even after the introduced charge are cheaper than equivalent purchased options.  

Bags for life are not without their problems either, the energy and raw materials used in their production often far outweigh the benefits accrued during their life time. According to research by the Environment Agency (pdf here), a simple plain cotton bag needs to be used nearly 200 times to be less environmentally damaging than a standard SUCB, I couldn't find any figures for those plastic lined or coated heavy linen or woven ones.

Ultimately an overall decrease of use of plastic bags is the aim and perhaps simply breaking the habit of picking up a bag at the checkout will be enough to instill new behaviours and use of more sustainable, friendly alternatives along with a new or increased awareness of the issues surrounding energy and resource use and reuse.

So what do I use to transport my shopping? I grew up packing shopping into cardboard boxes carefully chosen from the heap by the door by my Dad whilst Mum was picking over the veggies.  So today I have two large plastic crates, each has been in use for over twenty years, they're fast to fill at the check out, slide easily into the boot, I don't worry about the bottoms falling out or handles breaking and if there's a spillage a quick rinse round fixes the problem. And for smaller purchases I have an old, patched, washed and repaired cotton bag from the local bakery, it must be about five years old and is used every morning to bring home the daily papers plus whatever small shopping (milk, honey, firelighters - the usual countryside mix!) is required that day.

Charging for single use bags is not perfect, but it's a start.  It's what happens next that will really make a difference.

Notes:
* Standard bags with a prodegradant additive use slightly more energy and materials in their production, starch-polyester mix bags are heavier again, use more ingredients and produce methane in their breakdown. From the Environment Agency report

England is still to introduce a charge.