[bots]

i know i wont pay for bags, and if that means i drop a few jars of pickled onions and smash them as I go ... well its not my fault

Fair enough, no objection to taking measures to reduce environmental impact, but all plastic bags these days are bio degradable, so this charge is not for the good of the environment. As Ammi pointed out, the cardboard boxes that used to be available, no longer are, so a concious decision has been made to hit the shopper with a charge or force them to behave in a particular way when there is zero environmental justification. It is quite frankly, all a load of bollocks