Disposable Plastic Bags

Sainsbury's are jumping on the eco bandwagon, by handing out bags-for-life instead of disposable carrier bags. The idea is to encourage everybody to reuse, rather than throw away.

I joined the herd, I now reuse bags, rather than use disposable bags. I have issues though.

Firstly, the waste involved with disposable bags is not significant. My consumption of plastic through milk containers is far higher than my consumption through disposable bags. One milk container has as much plastic as eight disposable bags. So if Sainsbury's really want to save the planet, enable people to reuse milk containers. (Sell milk from large vats, rather than individual bottles, bring your own container). The total amount of single-use plastic containers inside my shopping bags vastly outweighs the shopping bags themselves. What's more, we don't even attempt to Reuse Bottles in Britain.

Secondly, I'm not sure if I will continue to shun disposable plastic bags. I still have some spare disposable bags, but I will soon run out, and then what will I use for my kitchen bin? Is Sainsbury's asking me to wash out my kitchen bin, each time, rather than line it with disposable plastic?