Making Good Use: Perhaps It's Just Me

I was somewhat taken aback last week when, venturing into the Barnardos charity shop in Basildon - and having spied two rather spiffy long-sleeved T-shirts for my nephew - I was then charged 2p for a plastic bag. As it happened, Barnardos were the first charity shop I had gone in after getting off the bus - indeed, they are directly opposite the stand where my bus stops in the bus station - so I didn't have another carrier bag already that I could have put the T-shirts into and as it was raining I didn't want to just carry them around with me. So, with ill grace, I coughed up the 2p.

Now, I'm very much in favour of supermarkets charging for plastic bags and I always take my own bags with me when I go food shopping. However, I'm not so sure that charity shops should be charging for bags. Surely Barnardos should do what many other charity shops do and re-use donated plastic bags instead of manufacturing their own - which just adds to the mountains of waste already in landfill. Not only was I charged 2p for the darned carrier, but the bloomin' thing was such poor quality that it had gone into holes before I got home thus getting the T-shirts wet and meaning that the bag had to go straight into the bin. I'd much rather have been given a second-hand carrier that I could have then folded up and re-donated back to one of our local charity shops that are far more down-to-earth and don't have 'posh' bags with their names on it.

Anyway, such was my ire, I got the sewing machine out and made myself a new pillowcase tote which I shall be folding up nice and small and stashing in my handbag so that I've always got a bag on hand in the future.

Is it just me, am I being unreasonable? What do you think about charity shops charging for new plastic bags when they could easily re-use second-hand bags?