Sainsbury’s & I discuss plastic bag usage
Posted on December 12, 2007
Filed Under Environment, Politics, London | |
Sainsbury’s, like many other big supermarkets, make a big deal to us about their green credentials. “We now have compostable packaging!” “All our bananas are fair trade!” - All good stuff and I support all these initiatives. A few weeks ago, Sainsbury’s were even giving away their Bags for Life for free.
However, no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I hint, no matter how often I go in, my local Sainsbury’s will not cease in infuriating me with their insistance on giving me plastic carrier bags!
I must visit the shop at least once a day (not good I know, but there is no other alternative in my part of Brixton) and every day I take either a cloth bag or my backpack to put my few bits in. There are only 5 or 6 members of staff and they all know me now and for the last 5 months I have used my own bags every day.
Yet EVERY single time I put my shopping down, with bag at the ready, they ALWAYS start putting my milk and whatnots into a shiny, new, orange, plastic bag. To which I always have to say, “I don’t need a bag, thanks“. When will they learn?
Not a huge problem you might think, as I don’t end up taking the bags anyway. However, I watch from the queue as people willingly accept their free plastic bag to put their single Mars bar or pre-wrapped packet of bananas into, despite already having a half-empty bag. People don’t think, unless they’re encouraged to.
I would rather see all bags banned like in Modbury but until then, please please don’t mindlessly give everyone a bag Mr or Mrs Cashier. Surely the corporate heads or the people who look after CSR should be pushing down from the top to encourage their staff? All it would take is for the cashier to say “Do you need a bag today?” or “Can you put this in your other bag?” Something, anything, to make people think.
Thank you Sainsbury’s for making your bags from 33% recycled material, but do try and cut down on how many you give away eh?
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STOP PRESS!!! SAINSBURY’S RESPOND!!!
Read the comments to see the Customer Service Manager’s response to me - and my reply.
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8 Responses to “Sainsbury’s & I discuss plastic bag usage”
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Saw this on Digg.
Madness aint it? I dont think I have ever NOT been given a plastic bag! Forget the eco cost, add up the minutes wasted in taking those bits out of the carrier bag each time!!! Efficiency costs Supermarkets - think!
how do you cloak your ethical concerns in an (un)convincing manner? just read the one, the two and the big jar of sweatshop: http://www.primark.co.uk/ethicaltrade.htm
Wow that is amazing. What I love most (and I am sure Rico would enjoy) is the MASSIVE horizontal scrollbar. A side issue I am sure, but still an issue
I go through a similar experience every time I go to my local shop, but very recently they added my shopping to a plastic bag that was now charged at 5p as opposed to being free the last time I called in .. I still had to ask the shop assistant to remove all the goods from the carrier bag so that I could put them them in my rucksack as usual.. a waste of time and effort and the local stores do not have any re-cycling or carrier bag drops like some supermarkets. For example, Sommerfield has a bin outside the store for you to return or pick-up used bags before you’ve even done any shopping.. take heed Morrisons…
And Sainsbury’s respond!! Their comment below:
Dear Mr Applegate
Thank you for your email. I am sorry that you are unhappy that we supply free carrier bags to our customers.
We share our customers’ concern about the effect of carrier bags on the environment. Since free carrier bags were introduced in the 1970s, customers have become used to having them and it has become an expectation that we provide them. It is often suggested that we should charge for these in store. However, we believe that if we alone charged for bags this would not be in the best interest of many of our customers as most still expect to get their bags for free. Competition laws do not allow us to work with our competitors to agree a standard charge for carrier bags in all supermarkets.
We have focused on reduction, recycling and reusability of plastic bags for many years. This is why we use proportionately fewer plastic bags than anyone else and have the most comprehensive range of ‘Bags for Life’. We have introduced a new orange carrier bag made of 33% recycled material. All of our free carrier bags are now of this type. This will save 6,500 tonnes of plastic raw material every year (equivalent to 53,500 barrels of oil), and clearly demonstrates our commitment to reducing the amount of fossil fuels we use as a company. We are the only UK food retailer to offer customers a free carrier bag with a high proportion of recycled plastic material.
Sainsbury’s has seen the use of its free carrier bags significantly drop in the last six months, suggesting that our 16 million customers are beginning to abandon the single-trip carrier bag in favour of longer-life re-usable bags. We have seen the use of free disposable bags fall by 10% in the last six months compared to last year, and the use of re-usable bags soar by nearly 50%. The decrease equates to a saving of 85 million free disposable bags, which prevents 750 tonnes of bags from going to landfill. The sharp decline in free carrier bags followed our first two ‘Make the difference’ days when we were the first UK supermarket to remove free, disposable carrier bags from check-outs and instead offer free re-usable ‘Bags for Life’.
Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us. I am happy to have had the chance to explain our policy in this area.
Kind regards
Matthew Barlow
Customer Manager
And my reply:
Dear Mr Barlow
Thank you for your response but I fear you may have misunderstood my entire point. Please see my comments below:
> Thank you for your email. I am sorry that you are unhappy that we supply free carrier bags to our customers
* I am not unhappy that you supply free carrier bags. I am unhappy that your staff are not trained to discourage people from taking bags they don’t need.
>It is often suggested that we should charge for these in store. However, we believe that if we alone charged for bags this would not be in the best interest of many of our customers as most still expect to get their bags for free
* I never suggested charging. I suggested trying to help people use less. Stop encouraging unecessary usage.
> We are the only UK food retailer to offer customers a free carrier bag with a high roportion of recycled plastic material.
* I applaud this and did mention it in my blog post.
> Sainsbury’s has seen the use of its free carrier bags significantly drop in the last six months, suggesting that our 16 million customers are beginning to abandon the single-trip carrier bag in favour of longer-life re-usable bags.
* That may well be, but Sainsburys could encourage further with the few small suggestions I made. It wouldnt hurt to ask customers if they need a bag.
I appreciate Sainsbury’s efforts and mentioned this.
Please address my point - can your staff be encouraged to stop unconsciously handing out plastic bags?
Thanks,
Ian
Latest reply from Sainsburys:
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Dear Mr Applegate
Thank you for your further email. I am sorry that you feel my colleague Matthew misunderstood your previous email regarding plastic carrier bags.
I can say that my colleague’s reply was to give you information about the steps we are taking to reduce, recycle and reuse plastic bags. However, I can appreciate your frustration, especially as the question you asked was not answered.
I understand you would like to know if our checkout colleagues can discourage customers from taking bags they do not need by simply asking them if they need one. We do our best to meet all our customers’ needs. Feedback from our customers has resulted in our checkout colleagues being trained to ask customers if they need help with their packing. If a customer has their own bag or a reusable bag they have the option to decline the plastic carrier bags.
With the ever increasing awareness of the effect packaging and plastic bags have on the environment, we are always monitoring our customer’s feedback on this subject. I have passed your comments on to our managers at our store support centre. I can assure you your views will be taken into consideration at their next review meeting.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We are always pleased to hear from our customers, especially when they have suggestions about how we can improve the service we offer to our customers.
Kind regards
Sandra Johnson
Customer Manager
Nice one Ian.
It’s always interesting to hear what the supermarkets have to say. It’s precisely because of this fear that the supermarkets have of going it alone, that we need to put pressure on Gordon Brown to keep to his promise of getting the big players together. If he can be seen to be the one that makes the decision I’m sure the supermarkets would love to go bag free. (Just think of all that lovely money they’ll save and not pass on to the consumer!)
I’m not sure where you’re nearest local campaign might be, but the marine conservation society is keeping a list(http://www.adoptabeach.org.uk/pages/page.php?cust_id=80). Perhaps a few more people putting pressure on would make a difference.