Supermarket chain, ASDA has removed single use carrier bags from their checkouts across its 355 stores. Following a six week trial they saw the sale of re-useable bags increase by 1200 per cent across all the stores involved.

So from the 1st June 2008 all single use carrier bags will be removed from view and placed under the direct control of each checkout operator in every ASDA store. This move is said to encourage their customers to buy a ‘bag for life’ for 5p. Now let’s say one bag is not enough then this is going to add up till you have the right amount of bags you need because the bags they are offering at the moment are not that big. But the only good thing is that once you have the bags you will not have to buy them again but that’s only if you remember to take them shopping with you.

Paul Kelly who is the Corporate Affairs Director for ASDA has said that they were the first retailer to completely remove carrier bags from checkouts. He said that Between now and June we will be retraining all our checkout colleagues, talking to our customers about the changes, and installing new units for the reusable and ‘bags for life’, Many of our customers will begin to see the difference in May, with the full rollout completed the first week of June. We are also trialling an incentive scheme that will give customers money off their shopping. We believe this is the best way to encourage them to change the habit of a life time and start reusing their bags instead. We can all do our bit for the environment - this is about incentivising not penalising, saving the planet one bag at a time.”

This system aims to reduce carrier bag usage by a third and send no waste to landfill from its operations by 2012.

What do you think?

Will you use a “bag for life” or will you just put your shopping in the trolley and then into the car.

I will just take my Tesco bags into Asda and I bet I am not the only one that will do this.

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