BB FANS

04 June 2006 18:20:35 GMT
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Flatpack furniture giants Ikea have become the first retailer to start charging for plastic bags in Britain.

As of this weekend customers at the many UK branches of the value-for-money Scandinavian furniture store will pay five pence for each bag used – a charge which will rise to ten pence per bag by the autumn.

Ikea says it has introduced the charge to enhance its environmental credentials. The global furniture store, which operates 221 stores in countries as far apart as Canada, Kuwait and Malaysia, conducted tests in Edinburgh on charging which led to a 90 per cent drop in the number of bags used.

The company has highlighted the need to cut down on use of plastic bags, saying that their poor biodegradability, damaging visual environmental impact and consumption of chemicals and energy used provided a compelling argument for their decision.

The Environment Agency responded to Ikea's announcement by praising it as a "great move", encouraging other major retailers to follow suit.

Ikea hopes to cut its consumption of bags from 32 million to 20 million – a substantial company improvement but only a drop in the sea of the 17 billion plastic bags that Britain's retailers provide for customers every year.

I'm a big believer in recycling and I wouldn't have a problem being charged for plastic bags if it made people think carefully about using them again.

They're not the first though....Lidl have been doing it for ages

We have to pay a 15c levy for our plastic bags here in Ireland...therefoe we use cloth shopping bags.

Such a novelty, all those free plastic bags in the U.K. I bring them home as souvenirs.

and Aldi

GG I use cloth bags a lot too

hi GG, I got very irate at the whole no-plastic-bags Irish thing when I visited Dublin two years ago.

I had a streaming cold, it was whizzing it down with rain, and so after I had bought a lorry load of medicine from Boots, the paper bag it was in kept breaking cos it was soggy from the downpour...I got through three brown bags that day and was none too pleased!

I do try and reduce my use of placcy bags over here though - I got a cloth one recently

What are we like? We'll all be getting tartan shoppers-on-wheels next....

A 90% reduction in plastic bag usage is pretty impressive if they can roll that out country wide!!

The German supermarkets stopped using them several years ago. I heard it was part of a European regulation that would be all over Europe in the next few years

Surely in this day we can come up with a shopping bag that is biodegradable cheap to mass produce and strong too!

are you sure you want to admit to shopping in Lidl?!

I can't believe it's taken stores so long to act in the UK. although some stores like Sainsbury's have been selling heavy duty plastic crates for some time. If people are charged for bags I think more people will be encouraged to use re-usable ones or alternatives. I try and re-use mine (mainly as bin-liners) - I've even taken a load of Tescos bags to my local Morrissons, which raised a few eyebrows!

From an environmental point plastic bags are a nightmare. Not only do they take an eon to bio-degrade, they're also a danger to wildlife. I just get the impression that most of society still doesn't give a f*** about environmental concerns Certainly a lot less than our European neighbours, that's for sure. People seem to put greed first.

Paper bags only has been a policy in europe for yonks

I'm a fan of Lidl. Wish we had one nearer to us than 20 miles away...soon, hopefully.

Lidl is good for juices, jams, fabric conditioner and chocolate.

I also admit to shopping in Primark (it's called Penneys here), and their bags are a nightmare in the rain. 10 minutes in the street, and suddenly your knickers are falling out

The worst thing was one day when I had to go to the Four Courts (the equivalent of the Old Bailey) but on the way, couldn't resist picking up a bargain for my daughter in Primark. I looked a little less than respectable, when the paper bag disintegrated in the rain, and I ended up stuffing the garment into my handbag.

ok, i'm so tempted to make a whole series of jokes about why gobelgran was up in court

Oh - occupational hazard, that's all...