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How do!

So this is a thing. No more plastic bags from GW stores, as of June 2024.

I'm only surprised they haven't launched a range of 'Bag for life' bags. Competitively priced I'm sure.

Of course this might be a Uk only thing, but I think we as a society are fairly used to bringing our own bag these days, ever since the Government introduced the levy.

Whilst I always have a home made bag for life on me when out and about, there are occasions where my purchases exceed that bag’s capacity.

Another side thought? Whilst the image does specify Warhammer Stores, we know they provided Warhammer branded plastic bags to FLGS. Wonder if that’ll continue? And indeed if the FLGS pay for those bags.

There is a growing list of States in America that are banning plastic bags. If its not a statewide ban, counties are putting up there own legislation to ban plastic bags.

Now we can pretend to be green by saving 5g of plastic on a reusable bag and carrying the box with 100s of grams of waste sprue home on our hands. Christ this greenwashing virtue signaling is tedious.

Waste Sprue GW has been rolling out recycling for.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Now we can pretend to be green by saving 5g of plastic on a reusable bag and carrying the box with 100s of grams of waste sprue home on our hands. Christ this greenwashing virtue signaling is tedious.

It's part of a general government move though so its not just GW but other things too.
Eg the move in supermarkets away from plastic bags saw several firms doing nothing but making plastic bags for supermarkets shut down - that's a real world change. Imagine if they can also ween them off wrapping every bit of veg in plastic (which then only goes on to sweat inside it!).

So yeah it might sometimes feel odd when its a firm selling plastic product already; but every bit helps and if other firms are also dropping plastic bags as well then its a general step in the right direction.



Plus as noted, GW has been rolling out some in-store bins for recycling of GW sprues.

Sorry, as long as we have people who consume more in a day than I do in a lifetime you won't convince me this is anything but smoke and mirrors.

That’s a shame, the GW bags are pretty high quality I always find a use for mine!

Fair enough though.

We should get them to do more as well. But that doesn’t mean little steps don’t add up. The fact that we can’t solve the whole problem does not absolve us from doing what we can.

The last time I got a plastic bag from GW, the sales guy pointed out that it was a high quality reusable bag, and I could bring it back on future visits. Thus it wasn’t a “single use plastic bag”

It was. He knew it, I knew it. But the words were said to keep things legal in my state.

Generally I don’t need a bag because I’m just grabbing one or two things. I’ll try to remember to bring in my grocery bags if I’m going to make big purchases.

On the recycling front - and without having a clue how viable it is - I'd love to see them to do something around spray cans (OK, GW-branded spray cans).

 General Kroll wrote:
That’s a shame, the GW bags are pretty high quality I always find a use for mine!

I think I originally got the one I'm still using when I bought the AoS 2.0 starter set.

Now excuse me, I need to go buy a paper straw in a plastic wrapper.

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 General Kroll wrote:
That’s a shame, the GW bags are pretty high quality I always find a use for mine!

I think I originally got the one I'm still using when I bought the AoS 2.0 starter set.

Now excuse me, I need to go buy a paper straw in a plastic wrapper.

Ironic that your GW bag has a longer lifespan than the models it once carried did.

I can't see this quite working in practice. While charging for bags and trying to discourage their use is quite common, are GW retail really going to turn down the business of someone not bringing a bag and then trying buy a bunch of stuff they can't carry?

Or are store staff going to be forced to go rummaging in the stock room looking for a shipping box they can try and repurpose with no support for this scenario from corporate?

I dunno if I plan on buying a LOT of game stuff its rarely an impulsive purchase so chances are I'd take a backpack/bag or something with me.

Most impulsive hobby purchases might just be 1 box of models or a few pots of paint. Ergo easy to carry by hand/in a pocket kind of things.


The kind of person that walks into a store without any foreplanning and puts down £100s for loads of stuff - that's rare.


Sure there will be a transition phase for those that don't pre-plan to take their bag with them, but I'm sure most will adapt pretty easily the same as how everyone has adapted to supermarkets.

In the United States these moves are seen as an annoyance, and all states who have attempted these bans have increased their plastic waste several times over. A little investigation shows the politicians behind them have literally no clue what they are doing from an informed scientific sense, it's just a meme they can get behind, like government subsidies to solar farms in states too far north to use solar farms. But GW can get rid of plastic bags if they want, who in their right mind shops at one?

I don't think that getting rid of bags is a customer friendly move, especially for how many store customers are mums and grans with a Christmas or birthday list of big boxes to buy. Swapping to paper bags would have made more sense.

Missed opportunity to say "Since the formation of Games Workshop, there has always been no plastic bags available in stores".

As a sidenote getting rid of bags wasn't presented here 9at least originally) as reducing plastic waste, but reducing plastic bags which had a habit of getting everywhere and being a problem.

This strikes me as nothing more than GW trying to achieve cost savings by eliminating the expense of providing a bag to their customers and shifting that cost to the consumer and little or nothing to do with GW being truly interested or driven by an altruistic commitment to sustainability. GW’s whole business model is dependent on selling plastic products at very inflated prices that are nothing but a nonessential luxury item to be consumed by a affluent minority (realtive to the majority of the world population). The fact that they continue to commit to and rely on the printing of paper goods as a significant revenue source vs. digital distribution should tell you all you need to know about how much GW truly cares (and if were honest with ourselves, how much we truly care) about environmentally sustainable retail practices. But I guess good on you if you think GW is being a good corporate citizen and that your continued patronage of GW reflects someone who is scrupulous about only purchasing from "sustainable" businesses.

As mentioned, the move to eliminate "single use" plastic bags in the US have largely backfired for a variety of reasons. E.g., https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/climate/california-plastic-bag-ban.html

I'm fine with them not using plastic bags... only if they'll still provide a FREE paper bag with purchases. My guess as a cynic is that they'll instead use this as an excuse to charge customers for non-plastic bags (at a hefty profit of course) instead of giving them a plastic one free to carry their overpriced hobby purchase.

GW is a UK firm and the UK government is putting pressure on firms so GW is doing this to comply with general reductions in one-time use plastics and the like.

I need 20 paint pots for my next project and dont have a bag XD Thats going to be fun.

Good initiative but even supermarkets have alternative bags options... It's not like - though luck!

 NAVARRO wrote:
I need 20 paint pots for my next project and dont have a bag XD Thats going to be fun.

Good initiative but even supermarkets have alternative bags options... It's not like - though luck!

You're in luck. For the low, low cost of double your total purchase price you can buy a branded paint hobby carrying case for the project to carry the paint pots. It's really a win, win scenario for all involved! GW, the environment, and you!

 warboss wrote:
I'm fine with them not using plastic bags... only if they'll still provide a FREE paper bag with purchases. My guess as a cynic is that they'll instead use this as an excuse to charge customers for non-plastic bags (at a hefty profit of course) instead of giving them a plastic one free to carry their overpriced hobby purchase.

They’ve been charging of plastic bags in the UK for years now. Every shop has. It’s a law.

 warboss wrote:

 NAVARRO wrote:
I need 20 paint pots for my next project and dont have a bag XD Thats going to be fun.

Good initiative but even supermarkets have alternative bags options... It's not like - though luck!

You're in luck. For the low, low cost of double your total purchase price you can buy a branded paint hobby carrying case for the project to carry the paint pots. It's really a win, win scenario for all involved! GW, the environment, and you!

I can't speak for every single Warhammer Store, but this has been a big thing at my local one. They have special cardstock boxes the size of a sleeve of cookies just for this deal.

 frankelee wrote:
In the United States these moves are seen as an annoyance, and all states who have attempted these bans have increased their plastic waste several times over. A little investigation shows the politicians behind them have literally no clue what they are doing from an informed scientific sense, it's just a meme they can get behind, like government subsidies to solar farms in states too far north to use solar farms. But GW can get rid of plastic bags if they want, who in their right mind shops at one?

It's a bit more than an annoyance I'm afraid. There was a study that showed that reusable bags are actually worse for the environment than the disposable ones (at least the Walmart type). Most reusable bags require much, much more material than shopping bags and the materials they are made from are worse for the environment to make. So much so you'd have to reuse the bag hundreds of times before even breaking even, and sadly most people replace their reusable bags long before this because they get icky. Also to note, that when plastic bags are banned in areas sales of small plastic trash bags and dog-waste bags increase quite a bit. Looks like the average person uses their old-walmart bag as a trash liner for the bathroom.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Sorry, as long as we have people who consume more in a day than I do in a lifetime you won't convince me this is anything but smoke and mirrors.

Do you know how ignorant that sounds?

Every gram counts no matter its' source or who's using it.

ccs wrote:

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Sorry, as long as we have people who consume more in a day than I do in a lifetime you won't convince me this is anything but smoke and mirrors.

Do you know how ignorant that sounds?

Every gram counts no matter its' source or who's using it.

And yet only the class that already uses less is forced to count the grams.

 cuda1179 wrote:

 frankelee wrote:
In the United States these moves are seen as an annoyance, and all states who have attempted these bans have increased their plastic waste several times over. A little investigation shows the politicians behind them have literally no clue what they are doing from an informed scientific sense, it's just a meme they can get behind, like government subsidies to solar farms in states too far north to use solar farms. But GW can get rid of plastic bags if they want, who in their right mind shops at one?

It's a bit more than an annoyance I'm afraid. There was a study that showed that reusable bags are actually worse for the environment than the disposable ones (at least the Walmart type). Most reusable bags require much, much more material than shopping bags and the materials they are made from are worse for the environment to make. So much so you'd have to reuse the bag hundreds of times before even breaking even, and sadly most people replace their reusable bags long before this because they get icky. Also to note, that when plastic bags are banned in areas sales of small plastic trash bags and dog-waste bags increase quite a bit. Looks like the average person uses their old-walmart bag as a trash liner for the bathroom.

I can only speak for myself, but I use reusable bags more than hundreds of time. The cotton ones go in the washer if they're dirty and the (thick and sturdy) plastic ones are easily cleaned with water. I also have a rucksack on my back when shopping (well, almost always when I go out), so there's always an option to transport something. but maybe it's just a different mentality.