no no? or doable?
I wonder if using a coles reusable bag as a bin liner than throwing it in the trash to the dump be a enviromentally sound or good idea?
Question - using 15Cents Supermarket carry bags as bin liners?
ilove on 15/11/2020 - 18:43
Comments
would it break down?
I'm sure it would hold itself together long enough..
eventually.
Into smaller pieces of plastic, and then into smaller pictures…..
yes. indeed.
OP took trolling to a whole new level, and then you came….. Booom! I'm impressed
The mass of plastic composing the bag is insignificant compared to all the plastic packaging likely to be within it.
Check if it leaks first, otherwise any wet contents is likely to leak into your bin and the smell escaping in hot weather.
I feel like this is a troll post, but…
The idea behind these "reusable" bags is that they're stronger than typical shopping bags, so you can reuse them at the shops and not buy new ones every time. This reduces wasted plastic bag waste going into landfill from people just disposing plastic bags (that were a 30% chance of being usable as a bin liner).
Objectively, as a bin liner, it's not the best design - there's no full-closure at the top of the bag for holding in smells or scraps. I'd not recommend this style deliberately. If you have excessive bags you wish to get rid of, places like Woolworths (and presumably Coles) have soft-plastic recycling bins you can drop these off in to be recycled responsibly.
nope. it's not me but … somebody thinks they can just use as it's going to the bin anyway. they think.
my question is "is it enirvomentally friendy to dump those coles bag in the tip? as I imagine they never or take a long time to break down…"
No. But hardly anything we do is environmentally friendly.
nope. it's not me but … somebody thinks they can just use as it's going to the bin anyway. they think.
I do it each and every time. So what?
Whoever it is you're going to preach to will just find you annoying. LOL
Let them know about red cycle https://www.redcycle.net.au/ which is soft plastic recycling. If they are going to use a plastic bin liner anyway, I guess it makes only a little difference, but there is an option to recycle soft plastic rather than throw it out. Same goes for any soft plastic wrapping or bags.
well if they were going to toss the bags anyway, then might as well use them as bin liners. Still reduces plastic usage due to not having to buy purpose-made bin liners.
I hate these reusable bags. I have way too many to actually reuse all of them and like you said they are a terrible design for using as bin liners. The old shopping bag design made great bin liners, they were still good for reusing to store stuff or carry stuff, and they were made of like a tenth of the plastic. If anything, the new bags are way less environmentally friendly. I have taken to getting paper bags even though they cost more and are less good for carrying groceries. As at least you can use them as small disposable recycling bins.
when you ordered anything there is normally a comment box. Write "Absolutely no bags". Lets them know you really mean 'no bags!'
The idea behind these "reusable" bags is that they're stronger than typical shopping bags, so you can reuse them at the shops and not buy new ones every time.
I found the old style 'thinner' bags lasted just the same. Can only get about 3 uses before they tear.
Difference is, now about 5 times more plastic goes to landfill as it is much thicker…
I've used the 15c reusable bags 50+ times. And still manage to collect enough single-use bags to use as bins from other random shopping trips (every now and then I use some empty packet instead).
Difference is, now about 30 times less plastic goes to landfill as my grocery bags get reused.
I've used the 15c reusable bags 50+ times.
I don't buy one thing at a time though…
@jv: Neither do I.
Amazingly, the bags hold multiple items!
Shockingly, you can also use multiple re-usable bags, sufficient to do your full shopping trip.I usually take 2, one to carry with each hand. But you could use 6 or 10 if you do a fully trolley load.
@abb: I just bought 20 of the $1 ones from eBay ~8 years ago. That way even if I forget to put them back in the car a couple of times I still don’t end up stuck without them. In that time period I’ve only twice had to buy a single 15c bag on days I was really distracted. I keep a couple of cotton bags rolled up in my work bag as well so even if buying stuff at lunch / traveling via PT I can basically fit as much as I can carry.
Most people would have had one bag of garbage for every 10 shopping bags anyway. They were pretty much always thrown away empty and almost never reused.
People like to pretend that the change has made the problem worse but if they’re not outright mistaken about their own behavior then they’re clearly a very unusual individual.
I’ve been using the same set of thicker reusable bags for going on 8 years now. I used to go though a dozen bags a week….
But the big problem with the old bags wasn’t actually the quantity of plastic, it was that they were so light weight they easily blew into waterways, impacting wildlife and fowling drainage pipes.
clearly a very unusual individual
First time meeting jv ?
But the big problem with the old bags wasn’t actually the quantity of plastic, it was that they were so light weight they easily blew into waterways, impacting wildlife and fowling drainage pipes.
Our council recycled them.
@jv: 99.9% never made it to recycling bins. It doesn’t matter if they were theoretically recyclable, that wasn’t the reality.
I’ve been using the same set of thicker reusable bags for going on 8 years now.
That sounds very unhygienic and most probably a covid risk.
@jv: You realize that everything that goes in them has it’s own plastic package pretty much. Covid will not last on them between shops either, bigger risk taking a new one that’s been sitting in a busy supermarket rather than one that’s been sitting in the car for a week.
they were pretty much always thrown away empty and almost never reused.
We nearly always reused them unless they were ripped. Most people we know also did this.
@jv: I used them too, but almost always they had tiny holes in them, and surprisingly the volume of garbage minus the contents and recycling wasn’t the same volume as when full of consumables, resulting in lots of empty ones being thrown out. It wasn’t great fund having them cut into your hands carrying heavy groceries upstairs either, and tear when overpacked…
I had a pair of the bags that had been sitting in the car fail carrying 4x2L bottles of coke, alongside a new bag that did not fail. In fact I regularly do 4x2L without a problem with new bags. You'll have to forgive me if I don't believe you are getting 8 years out of these bags, especially since they haven't been around for 8 years.
@syousef: These are the $1 bags, not the 15c bags, and not bought from Coles, eBay.
Coles has been selling the $1 bags for 15-20 years. I was late to the reusable bag cohort.
The number of 2L bottles I had tear through the thin bags over the years :/ was such an upgrade to go to the $1 bags.
@[Deactivated]: I have those bags too, and 8 years is still an over-estimate. They rip and the plastic, though much sturdier than the 15c bags, does deteriorate and tear. The handles in particular can either tear off or, if the stitching actually holds, tear into the bag. The zippers also fail. I have no idea how you manage to get 8 years out of the same bags without any breaking down. In any case I think it's fair to say you're not the typical user.
The sturdier the bag, the longer it takes to decompose in landfill. The thin bags were awful, but the move to thicker bags wasn't about the environment at all. It was about getting rid of the thinner bags which could break and injure people, potentially leading to litigation, while at the same time shifting not only the cost of the bag to the shopper, but making a slight profit also. That would be more tolerable if the supermarkets were honest about it instead of presenting it as being environmentally friendly.
Another thing to consider is that those getting groceries delivered to their door are now getting thicker bags also, and don't get an option to reuse or recycle the bags. Often to move their groceries a few meters.
Same goes for recycling bottles and cans. All those people making trips in their cars instead of putting those items in the yellow bins is not a net positive to the environment. And the refusal to accept crushed items makes things even more farcical as storing those items longer to make fewer trips isn't practical if they take up several times the space.
This generation is going to be mocked in the history books if the human race makes it through a few more decades.
@syousef: It cost supermarkets serious money. They were not giving away bags because they liked charity, free bags were originally introduced to boost sales, and they did. They fought it until the writing was on the wall and it was bad PR to resist further, and it became cheaper to take the hit in all states at once since it was already being legislated in enough that it was cheaper to have one ad campaign. The extra profit they get from people buying just one more item because they get a free bag far exceeds the cost of all the bags that person was likely to use in several shops. Clearly, people are still hurt about it, so a big fail if they did it for money.
Breaking down in landfill isn't really the issue, there's heaps of plastic before, and still, the issue is the plastic that doesn't make it to landfill because it's lightweight and blows in the wind.
Another thing to consider is that those getting groceries delivered to their door are now getting thicker bags also, and don't get an option to reuse or recycle the bags. Often to move their groceries a few meters.
Home delivery is a tiny tiny fraction of the total orders and pre-covid at least there were options to select no bags. Just because one thing is worse doesn't make the whole thing bad. You can find plenty of examples that make the change bad but the result is less profit for supermarkets, less impulse sales and less plastic, both in total and especially in the environment.
I agree with you on the cans and bottles. Though as a result I just changed over to a sodastream. The lack of putting them in the recycling also removed a source of revenue for council.
This generation is going to be mocked in the history books if the human race makes it through a few more decades.
They are, just for the opposite reasons…
I'm not some hyper greenie, I don't want anyone to take my plastic straws, but you're just unequivocally wrong on plastic bags, by and far the change has been better for customers and the environment and worse for 'big supermarket'. Just a few examples of where it might be one step back doesn't negate the hundred steps forward.
It's a complete waste of breath to ever get mad a company for marketing as well. I don't know what you hope to achieve with that other than getting yourself worked up over nothing. Companies do heaps of things in the names of profit, including being environmentally friendly because their customers demand it.
It was about getting rid of the thinner bags which could break and injure people, potentially leading to litigation.
They'd been around for decades and can you find anyone that got any substantial damages from a broken bag? It'd be like getting rid of stores entirely because a customer slipped in one. While I've been quite happy with the upgrade in bag quality when carrying heavy groceries, I can't say I've done more than swear when dropping 2l bottles out of the old ones. How bad an injury could you really get?
I don't know what you mean about zippers, my bags don't have zippers. I just checked and they were actually $1.30 so maybe I just got better ones (I ordered online and haven't given more than a total of 30c to supermarkets for reusable bags since they were introduced). You can also get cotton ones as well if you like, then there's no plastic required.
Anyway it's crazy to still be worked up about this sort of issue, especially since this whole topic has been done already, and we've already had this same conversation previously.
Ironically I end up ordering heaps of my groceries via Amazon these days and get them shipped in cardboard. Cut out the supermarkets altogether. Farmers markets for fruit and vege in boxes. Cheaper too.
Home delivery is a tiny tiny fraction of the total orders
Really? You're really minimizing the impact of online grocery shopping during a pandemic, when people have been locked down? The kindest way I can put it: You're out of touch.
In Australia it may be single digit right now, but pre-covid Coles had $1.1 Billion out of $35 Billion in sales revenue. Not exactly insignificant if you ask me.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3457348/coles-online-b…Online Grocery Sales are up 39.7% and is forecast to increase by 56.0% in 2019-20
https://powerretail.com.au/multichannel/online-grocery-sales…
https://www.ibisworld.com/au/industry/online-grocery-sales/5…In the US projections are that grocery sales will be 20% online by 2025.
https://www.supermarketnews.com/online-retail/online-grocery…
https://retailwire.com/discussion/online-to-make-up-21-5-per…
https://www.supermarketnews.com/online-retail/study-number-o…They'd been around for decades and can you find anyone that got any substantial damages from a broken bag?
How about a death? Will that do?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2406872/Walmart-pla…What else have you got wrong? I don't have time to fact check everything you say, but instead of saying it is so on the assumption that it is based on how you would like to see the world, try doing some fact checking before putting forward ideas that don't hold water as if they were absolute truths.
Really? You're really minimizing the impact of online grocery shopping during a pandemic, when people have been locked down? The kindest way I can put it: You're out of touch.
Says I'm out of touch, backs me up with links…. Well done. The pandemic halved Coles online sales growth. They had to shut down almost completely for weeks and have still not got click and collect up and running everywhere. Before the pandemic you didn't need to have groceries bagged, by the time they're back on trend for growth it'll be optional again or they'll keep losing share to Amazon et al who have cheaper / free delivery and no bag requirement.
Also keep in mind online orders have a higher average order value due to the minimums and fees (so 3% of value isn't 3% of orders, it's way less in orders)
I'm ordering groceries online, but from Amazon. Who package in paper and cardboard, and have much lower minimum quantities. Coles growth is really capped by their process being setup to capture larger orders.
I know about online sales growth, I literally have worked for the countries top retailers over more than a decade driving that very growth (no grocery chains though). But that doesn't have much to do with a temporary local requirement for plastic bags that is harming growth. I'm actually surprised it's that low in the US given the extra options they have and more mature delivery networks.
Anyway.
can you find anyone that got any substantial damages from a broken bag
How about a death? Will that do?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2406872/Walmart-pla…What else have you got wrong? I don't have time to fact check everything you say
Listen, I'd suggest you concentrate on fact checking just the things you say before you worry about lecturing others.
https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/nebras…
Your 'fact check' (of a claim I never directly made by the way). Doesn't even disprove the claim you say I made.
So just summarizing, your fact checks, all wrong, even though they're against claims I didn't even make but strawmen. Yes, online orders will increase, while plastic bag usage in raw numbers and the weight of plastic has decreased, companies like profits, people like convenience and 'free delivery'. People also generally like the environment even if they want to be lazy with it, if they can save money and have less impact most people don't go on crazy rants about it every time the topic comes up.
Says I'm out of touch, backs me up with links…. Well done. The pandemic halved Coles online sales growth.
Way to cherry pick dude. Dozens of links on an upward trend in online grocery sales and you pick the one downward blip.
I've shown you that $1.1 Billion in sales even pre-covid and a projection of 1/5th of sales being online in 5 years and you think I've backed you up with the ridiculous claim that online shopping is just a blip and not worth worrying about for its environmental impact with no reuse of bags. "Home delivery is a tiny tiny fraction of the total orders" but it's a claim you never made, right?
You're literally wasting my time. So I'm not even reading the rest. Think what you like. You're wrong.
@syousef: The direction is entirely unimportant. You're arguing against statements I never made.
online shopping is just a blip and not worth worrying about
Never said that at all, totally irrelevant argument against something I never said.
projection of 1/5th of sales being online in 5 years
completely irrelevant unless you expect there to still be a pandemic in 5 years, and the solution to still be plastic bags? You're picking the situation that has evolved this year and retrospectively applying it to a decision made years ago and to remain well past any pandemic lifetime.
You're literally wasting my time. So I'm not even reading the rest. Think what you like. You're wrong.
Why start reading it now, you clearly didn't read it in the first place. Very convenient place to stop reading too. You've done nothing but try and change the subject to be about how online shopping is growing, while putting up fake claims of profiteering off plastic bag changes, even trying to use someone's death to win an argument without bothering to do any fact checking. Not to mention using sources from the US which has completely different influences.
The crazy thing is, even if 100% of shopping was online, and everyone had to buy the bags, there'd still be less plastic in waterways even if there was more in the tip.
I've shown you that $1.1 Billion in sales even pre-covid and a projection of 1/5th of sales being online in 5 years
~3% and a projection from the US. Again though totally irrelevant. It's ~3% here, this year, the year in which Coles has temporarily changed an online policy. Now if you want to rail against that policy, I'm totally with you. But I'll do my own protest against it by simply not buying from them, after all, that's way more effective than shouting into the void.
@[Deactivated]: Nope. Not wasting my time.
Feel free to live in your own magical fantasy world where whole sets of canvas shopping bags last 8 years, and you expect this to be something others can consistently do, and where "Home delivery is a tiny tiny fraction of the total orders" - tiny being $1.1Billion in revenue per year and growing for one major Australian supermarket alone BEFORE Covid lockdown. (Yeah I really stuffed up and backed up your point of view there. What was I thinking, huh? In your world online grocery retail's shrinking.).
I'm not interested in arguing minutiae when your base point of view is so ridiculous. Life's too short.
Ask your local Greenie
Local greenie reporting, though I don’t have any formal accreditation or qualifications.
For me, the considerations here aren’t about “breaking down” in land fill. The bin contents are likely to last a long time, regardless of the bag, so I think that is much of a muchness.
If the bag can be reused for shopping, best to re-use it in that way until it becomes worn out, then use it one last time as a bin liner.Supermarkets have a soft plastic recycling point, but I think it is a mixed idea at best. Supermarket workers tell me it is regularly contaminated with rubbish, and they don’t have time to sort through sorting it - so the whole bin goes to landfill.
Even if it made it to recycling, the process for recycling soft plastics isn’t great, as the material is quite variable. So it gets turned into second grade park benches or something at considerable cost and energy use.
Much better to minimise plastic use in the beginning, then re-use as much as possible the plastic that can’t be easily avoided.How many responses/answers do you want? Why don't you setup a poll instead?
Yes, it is. Rubbished is burned to produce electricity. This is called waste to energy.
So you saying is good to use it as a bin liner or not?
Sue, why not.
wow. i would thought it wouldn't break down. And just cuttler the dump?
Did you just troll the troll?
@whooah1979: Better off left in the ground to just decompose. Burning = C02. Decomposition also CO2, but not at combustion levels.
@tunzafun001: Harvesting methane from garbage is another alternative which is actually environmentally positive as methane has about 30x the greenhouse potential of CO2.
This.
Once I started recycling my soft plastics by this method I realized just how much I use to just throw into landfill. It is around 3/4 to a full recyclable bag from Colesworth worth of the stuff each one to two weeks. It is everywhere!
Oh wow, never knew there was any initiative to recycle plastic bags
Yep, from what I know:
- Colesworth for soft plastics, bubble wrap and similar
- Aldi for batteries
- Officeworks for ewaste, printer cartridges, mobile phones
- Some dentists (apparently) even take old plastic toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes I think?Here's a list of others
https://www.terracycle.com/en-AU/brigades
Last time I looked the 'recycled' soft plastics got sent to China. Then China either burned them, burried them or dumped out to sea.
We aren't serious about recycling or the environment yet. Been teaching people to be green for 25 years and I now realise people wont change. Mother nature is starting to flex though as we have seen this year.
On the Redcycle FAQ page, they claim that their plastics are used by Australian manufactures.
Where does the collected soft plastic end up?
We bring the collected plastic back to our facility for initial processing, then it is delivered to our Australian manufacturing partners:
- Replas (https://www.replas.com.au/), based in Ballarat, Victoria, who convert REDcycle material into a range of recycled products including indoor and outdoor furniture, bollards, and signage.
- Close the Loop, based in Somerton, Victoria, who utilise REDcycle material as a component of high performance recycled asphalt additive for road infrastructure known as Tonerplas
- Plastic Forests, based in Albury, NSW, who use REDcycle material as a component of products such as mini wheel stops and air conditioner mounting blocks for the consumer market.
@OP - it should be possible as long as there's nothing sharp or poking into the bag, or the trash itself isn't heavy.
it is made of the cheapest plastic type given their mass production.
had a couple boxes of tissues amongst other things and a new bag got a hole.also wouldn't trust heavily loading it - had the handles rip off when I had heavy cans loaded in one.
if cost is an issue - I'd spend the few cents on buying the cheapest bin liners instead.
if you have too many bags lying around - I use them to store items in garage/closet etc
the hassle of a hole or ripping handles / spilt or leaking garbage / picking up trash with bare hands is not a fun experience for anyone…
use as a one time bin liner with rubber band tied up. I just wonder if this bag should be going to the landfill as it prob not breakdown able? or is?
Oh believe me it is "breakdown able", just gotta wait around a 1,000 years or so
In 200yrs time if they are still around you'll get a spanking for being a norty boy.
general waste bin do not require that u wrap rubbish in plastic bag to hold them…it's better to place any rubbish loosely in the bins…however i do understand the concern about the bin smelling of the waste (especially if there's liquid) so the trick is to lay the bottom of the bin with either some layers of newspapers or grass cuttings so any liquid waste can be absorb…if u really need to put rubbish in a bag before in the bin, then pls buy compostable rubbish bags from the shops (glad)…I have been doing some research recently and doing up a powerpoint to try and educate my small community so that's why I know a bit more now…if everyone do our bit for the environment, it definitely helps! Please do the right things, not just for ourselves but for everyone else…Thank you!
Doesn't sound very economical paying 15c a bin liner.
If you want free bags just fish them out of the s9ft plastic bag recycling bin at your woolies or Coles. That's is what I do when I go there and realise I have forgotten bags.
You are now in the running for the OZBargain Tightarse Greenie award!
The bags are watertight. Supermarkets sell large zip lock bags that cost more than 15 cents each, so why shouldn't these bags cost 15 cents. They make great bin liners too.
Hi OP, are you related to Pam?
if she is human. maybe
I worked out it is cheaper to get a value pack of bin liners and they fit my bin better, 15c per bag is pricey compared to a roll of 50 bin liners which is 8c per bag vs 15c per bag from the supermarket
But not if they were already buying the bags to carry groceries anyway…
You can buy specific bin liners which come in rolls. Equating to about 7c each.
How would you com to the assumption that a thick heavy plastic bag designed to be sturdy, would ever be good for disposal? Where is your head at? This is why they issue "reusable" plastic bags so you do NOT discard into the environment.Does any of this make sense to you?
Obviously not…
it's not me dude! I have leftover coles bags from online delivery.
Ask for boxes
Why would you bother?
You can buy a 30 pack of rubbish bags which end up costing a few cents each.I reuse the plastic bags I'm 'stuck with' for all kinds of things - even as 'cling wrap' substitutes on food etc. in fridge or cupboard that doesn't need to come in contact with the bag (eg it's in a bowl). Some have, scarily, lasted 50 or more uses over a 10 or 15 year period. Then, off to Colesworth bag-dump.
However, as 'greenie' would agree, break or cut the handles before discarding to keep them from getting wrapped around animals etc.As a reference, we use Glad bags to line our bins. Works out at 8 or 9 cents each. Maybe 7 cents if they are on special and u pay with a discounted voucher.
Why on Earth would anyone need to pay to get more plastic???
There is no way you could fill enough of everything you have in every day life… You just don't see it.
You buy a pack of steaks . Stuff about 1/4 cubic meter of stuff in there, then bin it.
175g chip packet . Holds around 5 nappies.
Bag of dog food, the plethora of shopping bags - coles/ woolies….foot locker, iconic, David Jones etc etc….bags
Buy a tshirt..it comes in a bag.
Pick up brocolli …bag.
Bag of potatoes.
1 kg of coffee beans in a….bag
Australia post deliver a sim card in a huge…bag!
You buy a newspaper that now comes wrapped in a clear…bag
Loaf of bread…bagAs per my other comments. I now don't accept bags from Woolies or Coles, surfstich etc
There is normally always a delivery / other comments box. In this write "Absolutely no bags please. Will only accept in boxes". You may have an initial stoush with the coles delivery person, but they get the hint. My stuff now comes in boxes (which is heaps easier to unpack as well just quietly).
But I still can't dispose of all the other bags at the rate we accumulated them.
Edit - Another tip how to use them. Place a small hook inside a cupboard, back of a door etc. Then simply pierce the bag on it and it will just hang there…any size works. Use to simply just pierce over the levered back door handle.
We live in a western capitalist world where we spend the majority of our time being wage slaves. Are you seriously questioning why someone would spend insignificant amounts of money to increase their quality of life in a not-nice area such as trash?
Couldn't give a stuff about the $. In fact I think all plastic bags should be $2 minimum. Manufacturers need to pay $100/ 100g of plastic used in packaging (won't even put a dent on the current clean up required). Go for a dive anywhere now and the bottom is littered with plastic.. seeing a sea turtle dead last year with a gut full of plastic really infuriated me. The amount of plastic we use is rediculous and buying more on top does my head in.
So my point was simply, there is already way too much plastic and buying more is rediculous. We don't think any more about it once it's put in the wheelie bin. A simple mind shift from using a glad garbage bag, to using one of the 1000 bags that will appear (especially over Xmas) isnt too hard).
Instead of piercing the bag, why not just hook it on one of the handles?
I use all bags..ie. bread, coffee, potato etc and they dont have handles.
Since I started getting food delivered and they seem to put 2 items in each bag, I have a lot of bags. Have been using them for rubbish for months.
If I go to the shops, I try to take reusable bags
They were introduced to reduce the volume of single use plastic in landfill. They have to be used at least 7 times for that to work out that way(I think its 7, can't find a source right now)
All it has to do is stop 7 bags being used for it to be a win, not that exact bag being used 7 times. For everyone out there throwing them out there's dozens of people deciding they don't need a bag for those two items, or bringing more durable ones that can be reused hundreds of times.
And the reason actually wasn't to reduce the volume in landfill, it's because the old bags were so light they ended up blowing into waterways and pipes and impacting marine life and equipment. The heavier ones are much less likely to do that, because there's less of them, they're heavier, and people are less likely to discard them in public. The reduction in landfill is just a bonus, the landfill problem is fairly drastically overstated. But regardless the new ones are easier to recycle as well, though I doubt many are.
Ballpark figures when these bags were introduced were 'they are 7x more environmentally expensive to produce' than the old thing bags. Meaning a bag needs to be used 7x to break even on the environmental cost of producing it, let alone the cost of disposal (increased time to decay due to heavier weight).
If you use them as trash bags, you're now 7x worse for the environment.
I myself, have never reused a bag, so I'm also 7x worse. My shopping is just 30-45cents more expensive due to bags.
What sort of ozbargainer doesn't take their own or ask for boxes
No boxes here. Price of groceries has been skyrocketing year on year for a very long time, 45cents is nothing compared to that. I still only buy most of my things on special :)
Until this year groceries had actually been falling year in cost on year for many years. Obviously not uniformly, but if your grocery costs are higher than they were 5 years ago, your purchasing habits diverge from CPI.
It's ok though, you can buy bags every time and it's still a net win, more than enough people don't to make up for it.
"better" would be to take it back to woolies/coles and put it in the recycle bin there
Yes, and we are paying for this con job
+1 if you're Asian and you use plastic bags from the shops as bin liners.
Its a great idea.