Review: Supermarket reusable bags
I've bought several reusable plastic bags over the last year and, some how, I've never got round to actually reusing them. Instead they've been folded neatly and left in the kitchen. Utterly useless. However, at the beginning of last week as I popped into Asda's for my daily 'I've forgotten something from the weekly shop' catch up, I remembered to pick one up. The day before, you see, I'd used two plastic bags and promptly thrown them in the bin afterwards. I realised if I did that five times a week on random items then I could use up to 10 bags per week. And if I used that volume every week, it was entirely likely I could use 520 plastic bags per year.
A bag here and there doesn't seem to mean much but 520 overall is a pretty shocking figure. I shop at a number of different supermarkets so I thought I'd compare the biggest retailers.
Asda
Style - large white bag with pink Breast Cancer ribbon logo
Cost - 10p
Usefulness - makes up the size of around two normal size carrier bags. However, within a week, a small tear had appeared in the bottom of the bag. The small print on the bag say they will replace this one and recycle the damaged bag.
Tesco
Style - blue bag
Cost - 40p
Usefulness - Expensive compared to the Asda reusable bag but made from much thicker plastic which has reinforced stitching at the bottom. Nice blue colour with foody pictures. Also spotted a reusable plastic wine bag with inserts to hold your bottles up right.
Marks and Spencer
Style - black material bag with strong handles
Cost - £1.50
Usefulness - The most expensive and stylish of the bunch. Can fit a substantial amount of shopping into this basket style bag and the black colour and style make it look quite chic for a reusable. Looks and feels like it will last forever.
Do you have a different reusable bag? Name and praise in the comments!
Related: What can I do? I Recyling
