Penneys is the latest retailer to introduce a charge for paper bags.

From next Monday, customers will pay 15-cent per bag – but is the fee fair, or just another cost for consumers to shoulder?

Presenter of The Home Show Sinead Ryan told Newstalk Breakfast that she thinks the charge is “a little disproportionate”.

“These paper bags, by the way, are already brown recycled paper, so charging for them seems like more of a punishment than what you’re actually getting for it,” she said.

“I totally am behind charging for plastic bags, charging for anything that harms the planet, but this doesn’t to the same extent at all and I think it’s a little bit high.”

A Penneys shopfront is seen in the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, Dublin in September 2018. Picture by: Michael Grubka / Alamy Stock Photo

Public policy advisor Oisín Coghlan said he sees the move as “a bit of a distraction”.

“Penneys business model is it’s a fast fashion brand – it's pile them high, sell them cheap, get people to buy more than they need,” he said.

“And here they are saying to the customers, ‘You take responsibility for us looking a bit better by paying for the bags’.

“I would prefer people to, I don’t know, wear their Penneys clothes for as long as possible, not buy as much and look more at how Penneys make their clothes.

“Only three per cent of their clothes are fully circular or recyclable; they say 66% have recycled materials in them, but actually that’s often plastic.

“So, when you wash their clothes, it sheds microplastic into the atmosphere.”

Sinead agreed that she would be “a lot more on board with this type of charge if they weren’t importing so many of their clothes from Bangladesh, India and the 407 factories supplying them in China”.

Penneys response

A Penneys spokesperson said in a statement that "many retailers have been charging for paper bags for several years, and we're one of the last major retailers to do so".

"It’s already been proven that charging for bags dramatically reduces paper waste," they said in a statement.

"By introducing a small charge on our paper carrier bags, we hope customers will bring a reusable shopping bag with them when they visit our stores.

"It’s another small step in our commitment to become a more sustainable and circular business.”

The retailer also said that it has a "rigorous process in place" to check whether suppliers are upholding the businesses' code of conduct.

Main image: Penneys. Credit: AG News/Alamy Live News. 1st Dec, 2020.