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Charging for paper bags

Consumers pick up the price

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott
The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.
Wed Aug 14 2024 - 00:04

Sir, – Further to “Why do shops charge for paper bags and is it justified?” (Conor Pope, Pricewatch, August 13th), I understand and fully accept the explanation offered by some shops for their introduction of a charge of up to 60 cent for paper bags. However, if they wish to charge for bags, then these bags should not be specific to Brown Thomas, say.

They should be plain, since their branded bags become free advertising as customers go about their business in the streets of our towns and cities and on public transport.

Why should Brown Thomas, Arnotts and others benefit from free advertising from bags for which their customers have been obliged to pay? – Yours, etc,

EITHNE WHITE,

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Shillelagh,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Do the growing number of retailers charging for a paper bag, for the sake of the environment, think that money will grow on the trees that they are planning to plant?

In my opinion, it’s just another way of charging the hard-pressed consumer while lining the pockets of the company. I will now have two permanent items in my bag: the obvious umbrella and now the essential shopping bag. I absolutely refuse to pay money for a bag that will inevitably end its life in a recycling bin, at best. – Yours, etc,

DEE DELANY,

Dublin 5.

Sir, – I have no issue with this practice of charging for paper bags. We all moaned and groaned when the plastic bag levy was introduced and here we go again. Bring a bag with you. How many people have a ream of paper bags stored in a cupboard or have filled their recycling bin with them (which they pay to have collected).

In Portugal, you pay for a bag depending on size. The bigger ones are, obviously, the most costly.

Bring your own bag and stop complaining. – Yours, etc,

LAURA O’MARA,

Stillorgan,

Co Dublin.