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UK Question; How much money are supermarkets making out of “Bags For Life”?
I suppose this question may sound a little cynical, but I assure you I’m only asking it to satiate my curiosity!
While in Asda at the weekend I was offered their plastic “bags for life” at 5p each, as it would be kinder to the environment than using standard carrier bags.
I know that you get a free replacement when the bag breaks, but at 5p each are the supermarkets making large amounts of money out of these bags? Or are they selling them on a purely environmental basis; to care for our planet’s future rather than for just their own?
It got me to wondering how much these bags cost to make/ship etc – and also whether the increased production (ie the strong bags surely go through more manufacturing processes) negates any environmental benefits they may claim to have.
For the record, I tend to use material shopping bags – the sort you get free with Marie Claire or Glamour magazine.
Actually, they are not making as much as you would think. In fact I’ve spoken to a few supermarkets who are selling them for cost (which means they are not making a profit at all)
A lot of them have targets which their CEO’s etc have given them e.g. did you know Tesco have reduced the amount of plastics bags their customers use by half in the last year? That can’t be bad.
Regarding the environmental impact – It all depends on the break even point (the number of times the bag needs to be re-used to offsets the extra energy and material put into it to make it stronger) This will depend on the design of the bag but studies have shown consumers are re-using the bags more times than the breakeven point.
So on the whole – yes they are more eco-friendly and no supermarkets aren’t making as much profit as the cinics out their believe.
But everyone seems to forget the real issue here. Plastic bags are designed brilliantly to minimise material used in order to hold maximum weight AND they can be easily recycled. The real issue is all the crap which goes into the bags which can’t be recycled, all the food waste which ends up in landfill and products (like free toys etc) which perhaps should never have been made in the first place.
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