Does a 5p bag charge do enough?

Plastics, carrier bags, the environment. We have an issue. Does a 5p bag charge do something? Eh, kinda. Yes, it helps support local environmental initiatives and raise money for local communities. But is it reducing plastic consumption enough? I doubt it. 

The issue is we are all lazy. Yes, that means you. We may like to think of ourselves as highly efficient machines, but truth is we are not. We all cut corners and probably tried to microwave something we shouldn’t at some point or another. When people started to pay the 5p carrier bag charge, it was a big thing. Suddenly the cupboard under your sink was worth hundreds, maybe thousands of pounds. I wish. The issue is, 5p is not a much compared to what you are buying… unless you are purchasing a penny sweet (do these still exist?) then putting that 1p rhubarb and custard in a 5p bag and walking home… this is evidently nonsensical…

So the issue boils down to opportunity cost. When you get to the checkout with your glorious shopping that you spent hours carefully curating to ensure your avocado on toast is still, well eh… only to find you left your bags in the car. You often find it more cost effective to pay for the bags then to go back and get the ones you already own. Why? We are lazy. All of us. 

So the issue here is not our lack of care for the environment, it’s the convenience of the options we have. This means, if we are going to do something about plastic bags then we need to make them outrageously expensive. So expensive we storm off from the checkout to embark on the arduous trip to the car and back. I am talking about making that cupboard under the sink worth millions, billions, even trillions. Because we all know the average person probably has 1 million bags under there, then another couple thousand floating round the boot of the car. Probably being set aside as poo bags for your dog, as you are too lazy to buy actual poo bags.

So how much is enough? I say £5. This is significant, outrageous. Enough to encourage even the laziest of shoppers to bring a bag with them. As they will now know buying a bag will be comparable to almost an hours’ worth of wages.  Hundreds of people will embark on that awful pilgrimage along the walk of shame to the car, in search of the carrier bag. Soon people will learn the lesson and maybe the polar bears will have a chance of surviving after all… Having minimum bag charges at £5 will force companies to make nicer bags, probably from itchy hessian stuff. This is good, not because now everyone will have itchy skin rashes and pharma companies will be happy to sell you over priced moisturiser. But because these bags take up so much room that once you have brought one you won't want to buy another, probably because you would need to buy a bigger car or build a new kitchen sink cupboard. 

Now I will not suggest this is a flawless idea. It has one downside, crime. With bags costing such an extortionate amount I am certain a new wave of crime will hit our streets, with people trying to break into our cars and homes to steal this now expensive commodity. Maybe it is the price we have to pay, who knows. 

On a more serious note, the 5p bag charge has run its course. Its effectiveness is failing and its time to increase the charge to encourage people to bring their own bags and encourage firms to switch the materials being used to more sustainable ones. £5 is probably too much. The principal I am trying to convey is that unless the charge is significant, then people will take little notice after the dust has settled. We need to set a price significant enough that forces people to think but does not restrict choice or make people worse off. As a result, I think a charge of £1 - £2 would be the right amount to make people reconsider their actions and help reduce plastic waste. Plastic waste is a systemic issue that we need to overcome, the problem is complex and not as simple to fix as I've talked about here. To fix the issue across the board, we need to invest in new materials. Materials that aren't made from dinosaur remains and other non-renewable sources. We invented plastic bags to save the planet believe it or not! The energy to create a plastic bag is supposedly less than cutting down trees for paper or growing cotton. The problem is us and our convenience focus producing far too much waste across the board. Lets not forget the lack of actual recycling and accountability, but lets leave that point for another article.