Avoid the Plastic Bag Charge and go eco

Despite ridiculous headlines this week like ‘plastic bag chaos’, it’s really not. England has simply started charging 5p for disposable plastic carrier bags to discourage their use, albeit with some needlessly complicated rules.

However, for us the issue is not avoiding a 5p plastic bag charge – the bigger issue is about avoiding disposable plastic bags altogether. They use up valuable oil, end up in our environment, in waterways, and trap and harm animals and especially marine life. We need to call time on plastic bags! So what’s the alternative?

The BagIt movie website highlights the issues we urgently need to tackle.

“Think about it…why would you make something that you are going to use for a few minutes out of a material that’s basically going to last forever. What’s up with that?” – Jeb Berrier, BagIt movie.

We have some great reusable and more eco-friendly bag options if you want something more hardwearing; here are our favourites:

A) The stylish Hamsa Hand Print Fair Trade Cotton Bag is my personal favourite – it packs down super small, it’s Fair Trade, and very affordable.

Recycle that waste plastic with these large recycled shoppers – with various attractive designs they’re tons better than the boring plastic-with-supermarket-logo variety and can be used for lots of other things too.
B) Blue floral paisley shopper
C) Rambling rose shopper
D) Red retro spot shopper

We’d also like to encourage brands, supermarkets and independent companies to invest more in reusable, non-plastic bags that will biodegrade and won’t pose a problem for future generations. If you have any tips or have seen any clever solutions, let us know!