Wait a minute – are UK bags the little light-as-a-penny plastic bags that we yanks are talking about? You know, disposable? Free? Only a few microns thick? Or are you talking about bags that you bring yourself, that’s you’ve specifically purchased for groceries? Something substantially thick and large, and you never would think about throwing them away 'cos they cost you a couple of pounds?
Culturally, paper bags are almost always available by request. I believe people like Cinnamon Girl and rabid environmentalists make sure that stays the case.
I agree about the more upscale stores having paper bags with handles, while run of the mill grocers have paper bags with no handles.
Another cultural observation re: groceries is that the Midwest seems much more into the bag your own setup, while here in the Southeast baggers are still the norm. Even the low-end chain ostensibly has baggers, although sometimes they are spread pretty thin. The higher end ones still offer to help you to your car.
My favorite reuse of the plastic ones is to double bag and use them when I scoop the clumping cat litter.
I am going to see if the ones I bring back to be recycled are really recycled around here, based on the heads up from DougC.
I always manage to do both at once. 
Neither - the standard (free) bags are seriously strong items (one supermarket, I can’t remember which, had a big advertising blitz when they introduced new even-stronger bags). Apart from when sliced, eg by a beer bottle cap, I’ve never seen one break in any way. They’re nothing like the flimsy items which you seem to be thinking of, which you can still find at the average cornershop.
There’s also proper reusable and truly-durable bags for sale at many supermarket checkouts.
I’m talking about free light as a penny plastic bags, dispossable, free, only a few microns thick.
But the way they are ‘stitched’ and I suppose the type of plastic go together to make them very strong. If you got a small piece you could rip it apart as easily as you can tear paper, but when it bunches up (like in the handles) it gets very strong.
most of the bags on this page are standard type UK bags.
If you want I’ll take a picture of one with lots of weight in it.
Yes and no. Paper can biodegrade, but if it’s in a landfill, it won’t. In a landfill, everything lasts forever. Of course, if you recycle your paper bags, then they won’t end up in a landfill, but the same is true of your plastic bags, and if (as is much more likely) they do end up in a landfill, the plastic bags will take up less space.
And if not on top of other items, and not in a bag by itself, then what is the proper way to bag bread?
Of the grocery stores I’ve seen in both Cleveland and Bozeman, the only place that doesn’t bag for you is Sav-A-Lot, an ultra-budget, generic-only chain, where in fact you have to pay extra if you want a bag at all. Most stores do not have dedicated bagger employees any more; the checkouts are designed so that the cashier can easily do it him/herself. Occasionally, if they have a lot of employees on duty and business is slow, they’ll shift someone from cashiering to bagging at a different register, but that’s atypical. And, of course, many stores now have automated self-checkouts, where you bag your own, but then, you do everything there on your own.
Also, higher quality plastic bags do exist here, but one seldom sees them at the supermarket. The ones at the supermarket seem to have a weight limit of four pounds or so; if you’re getting 2-liter bottles of pop, or gallons of milk, you probably want to double bag.
One plastic bag will hold 4 litres (in 4 tetra packs) of Grapefruit juice, or 4 litres of cola in 2 litre bottles. That’s slightly more than 4kg each, or something like 8.8 pounds.
Oh, I was talking about Uk bags there. Incidentally, these UK bags “shred” after a while of being stored. I dunno what exactly causes them to do that, or if it’s some sort of “bioderagradeable” feature that’s been designed into the bag, but there you go.
Did you mean to say 4 litres or 4 bottles? Because the bags I’ve used could probably comfortably hold 5 or 6 2 litre bottles (10 or 12 litres)
Oops. I meant 4 bottles. But then, I’ve never tried carrying 5-6 of them in one bag, but that mainly has to do with being a wuss and being unable to heave about more than 3 of said bottles back home without crying.
I think most of you are selling short the capacity of plastic bags, I can easially get 3 big soda bottles (2l) in them. It is a bit more difficult to pack, but the volumn is there. Also I do find them more resistant to catrostrophic failure when pierced by a sharp object.
I think baggers just don’t make the effort, and I usually repackage my 20 bags into about 5 before I leave.
In plastic bags, if they put the bread on top of everything else (they often put it on top of heavy items so the bread stays put), it either gets smooshed by the sides of the bag when you carry it unless it’s a short loaf; and/or it falls out of the bag in your car when you set it down invariably to get smooshed by something else or forgotten in the car. Unless you tie the handles which adds to the smoosh factor. Putting it alone in a bag solves that problem but seems like a waste and gives you yet another bag to carry. If you can figure out an alternative, please tell the folks at Kroger because they’ve yet to figure it out.
In paper bags, however, the bread sits on top of other items but well below the top of the bag, so it doesn’t fall out. It doesn’t get smooshed (if you don’t put anything other than a bag of chips next to it) because paper bags are wider and more accommodating to a loaf of sandwich bread. And if you carry the bags in holding it at the bottom where the heavier stuff is, you don’t smoosh it when during transport from car to kitchen.
At least this is my experience. Oh, how I miss those competitive bagger types. I learned some of my techniques from them. Lost art, to be sure.
BTW, here in the midwest our choices are Kroger, Thriftway, Meijer and Biggs (does anyone make grocery trips to Walmart?). Kroger is way, way too expensive and I only go there for convenience since they are four blocks away. Thriftway has better prices, Meijer better still (but you get sucked in by all the other depts.) Biggs is the only one where you bag yourself, the prices are low, and the other depts’ goods are so cheaply made, it’s not too distracting. I have to get on the highway for 10 mins to get to Biggs, but it’s worth it so we usually only do large grocery trips about once a month.
Oh, and I’m not much of an environmentalist really. If it were the only reason to use paper, I’d probably use plastic. I’m sure my 14-year-old son’s disposable diapers are still rotting in some landfill somewhere. 
FYI most UK stores don’t have baggers. We have to pack them ourselves.
Occasionally (at the weekend) the store behind my house has local schoolkids bagging for free. I am very particular about the way I want my bags packed so I don’t like them doing it (but I still smile, say thanks, and throw some heavy coins into the collection bucket for whatever charity they are volounteering for)
Another question is the energy cost to manufacture grocery bags: number of trees felled, amount of energy required for paper or plastic, how much oil required for one plastic bag ?
…errr, take the loaf in your hand and put it somewhere it won’t get crushed, such as a passenger seat? Never fails for me 
This is what I do, but only because I must carry my groceries home over a distance of several blocks. The combination of handles and strength and fewer bags is the way to go. If/when I have a car again, I will revert to one or the other.
Good idea, but I like to have less to carry, not more, hence the reason many things go into fewer bags. I already have my purse and my drink (never shop without a cup of coffee) to carry and whatever my kid has refused to carry even though she brought it with her (grrr!). I’d probably forget the bread anyway as my passenger seat is already used for holding various and sundry items.
Well, I’ve learned more about the paper vs. plastic debate than I ever thought I’d want to know…
And I’m still left with one question:
Do U.K. kitties like the plastic bags as much as our kitties like the paper ones?
I personally know one spoiled kitty who must have a paper bag on the floor at all times. Every few weeks I have to get a new one, as the old bag will be so abused as to no longer make that delightful crinkly noise when romped in/upon… :rolleyes: