5p Bags a good idea?

[snoopysue]

I think it's a good idea, cuts down on the rubish flying around!
Wales has been charging for a while now. Rob says Holland charges, as does Denmark (5p a bag is a bargin - Denmark is at least double!). We always have our own bags with us.

In Denmark, we have a bottles return system a bit like what I remember as a kid. It stops most of the bottle/ drinks cans being thrown in the wrong places. The only cans we see are the ones bourght in Germany where Danes are exempt for paying! There is a partial stop on that, as some German states now make us pay now, and we can reclaim it in Denmark (minus the german VAT).
Question is, what to do about all the McDonalds packing etc that gets thrown?

[AndrewA]

I remember in the 1970's we had to pay 1p for a bag.

[gardener]

We have to pay in Iceland too - about 8p, have done for years. It doesn't seem to make much difference to the number of bags used, and hardly anyone uses a reusable one. So the next step will be to stop selling plastic bags in some local areas.
There is a return on all plastic or glass bottles containing stuff that doesn't need to be diluted. So you hardly ever see that around as rubbish.

A family story says that when a department store first asked my grandfather to pay for a carrier bag he turned it inside out, saying that he would not pay to advertise their shop. He died in about 1963 so that was ages ago!

[snoopysue]

As my parents used to live in Wales, they've been used to paying for bags for a while - no one batted an eye-lid at them bringing their own bags - lots of people did. Since they've been living in England, they have had several comments and strange looks when they come with their stash of reusable bags!