We all use plastic bags when we go shopping all the time and sometimes their use comes to an end after that one shopping trip. Some people chuck multiple of them in one of their own to re-use for future shopping trips. Whereas the majority of them end up in landfills and affect our precious wildlife on land and on sea.

In the UK from 5 October 2015 it became the law for large shops in England to charge 5p for all single-use plastic carrier bags. And as from then until Winter 2017/Spring 2018 plastic bag sales have plummeted by 86%, allowing us to make a small contribution to saving our land and sea friends. Although there is still a lot of work to do.

The UK Government originally planned to ban plastic items such as straws, stirrers, and cotton buds from April 2020 to combat the excess plastic we use every day as a society. However, this has now been delayed to October 2020 due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

So what do you think - should we add bags to the ban list or leave them as chargeable extras?

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I don't think banning plastic bags will solve the problem as the issue isn't limited to plastic. I think society needs to change from the 'throw-away culute' that we have today.

I have been seeing an increasing number of posts of people finding facemasks washed up on beaches/nature ever since 'rona.



There's also some studies that show how alternatives bags aren't necessarily that much better. I've seen it thrown around in the past, but this is the first website I saw that mentioned it. Basically, other material of bags such as Organic Cotton, would need to be reused 149 time to have the same climate change impact as a classic plastic bag.

I don't think they should be banned, but they should be taxed more to give people stronger incentives for more environmental friendly alternatives (and have the tax money spent on other environmental projects). 5p for a plastic bag is very cheap in my opinion. Here they cost 10x that price and people are wary of using them.

I don't think they should be banned, but they should be taxed more to give people stronger incentives for more environmentally friendly alternatives (and have the tax money spent on other environmental projects). 5p for a plastic bag is very cheap in my opinion. Here they cost 10x that price and people are wary of using them.

I know in some shops over here it's more like 10p-15p a bag if it's thicker for example. And some shops over here even do different types. Co-op, for example, do compostable bags, which are handy for food scraps. I personally use a small foldable bag so when I'm finished with it I can fold it up and put it back in my work bag, or if I'm doing a big shop I use the bag for life ones.

Another shop I would normally use is Primark and they've done paper bags for as long as I can remember. I remember if they survived the journey home I would reuse them to put my school books or other school things in.

We stopped using plastic bags at my work since we moved to our new premises back in September 2018. With us being on an industrial complex, rather than on the high street, you wouldn't need to walk far to your car as it was pretty much on the doorstep. The only time we would use plastic bags was when someone purchased large sheets of paper, card or mountboard just so they wouldn't get creased or dirty in the customer's car. But even then the bags we use are the ones that were used to pack the goods in the first place. We try and re-use anything wherever possible, especially given the kind of work we are in!

I think down the line plastic bags will phase out more but I think it would be a very long time before they would eventually be banned.

We live in a society where we have to make peoples decisions for them.

We ban this,  start charging for that, until humans make the right choice we will continue the ruin the Earth.  Mother Nature will send another pandemic  to punish us.

I agree they should be charged.  But this is America after all.  There would be riots in the streets if that became a thing. 

Police stations, Target, and auto parts stores would be burned to the ground.

That sounds oddly familiar...

I think plastic can be banned in some aspects, but I still like having some sort of packaging around stuff like fruit and vegetables. Some people are disgusting and I don't want them touching the stuff I will eat (even though I'll wash it beforehand).

Banning plastic bags is a good start, but it is indeed woven into our culture to just throw away anything we don't use anymore, while it is still practical. What I find more disturbing than the plastic waste is the waste from the fashion industry.

You know those containers where you can donate your old clothes to be send to third world countries like states in Africa right? Well Africa has started to decline these donations, cause they have piles and piles of clothes noone wants to wear just sitting in landfills atm... So next time you want to take the easy way out to dump it all to Africa: consider giving it to a local thrift shop first. Or even better: stop buying new clothes every other month.

Banning plastic bags is a good start, but it is indeed woven into our culture to just throw away anything we don't use anymore, while it is still practical. What I find more disturbing than the plastic waste is the waste from the fashion industry.

You know those containers where you can donate your old clothes to be send to third world countries like states in Africa right? Well Africa has started to decline these donations, cause they have piles and piles of clothes noone wants to wear just sitting in landfills atm... So next time you want to take the easy way out to dump it all to Africa: consider giving it to a local thrift shop first. Or even better: stop buying new clothes every other month.

Fashion is definitely a huge contributor to waste. I've been seeing adverts over the last few months where some places are trying to be more sustainable with their materials.

We are such a throw-away society now it's really sad. I was on the bus into town the other day and noticed how many charity shops had so many bags left outside their premises with what I assume to be donations. I don't think our local charity shops can keep up with them.

i think plastic bags should 100% be banned unless they are bio degradable ones, same with plastic drink bottles/caps