74 local councils demand right to ban plastic bags

They are urging a change in the law that would allow local councils to ban the distribution of carrier bags given away in their billions.

The Daily Mail revealed last week that Marks & Spencer is leading a move to charge for plastic bags.

From early next year, shoppers will pay 5p for bags at its stores in the West Country, before the scheme is extended across the country.

But some councils - run by parties from across the political spectrum - want to impose a full ban on plastic.

However, critics say a ban might encourage shoppers to switch to materials which are even worse for the environment.

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For example, paper, although it biodegrades faster than plastic - which can take 400 years - emits the greenhouse gas methane in doing so.

The councils also face opposition from retailers, including Tesco, which believe shoppers should be encouraged rather than coerced into using alternatives to plastic.

The campaign for a ban was given impetus this week by a vote in favour by London's 33 councils.

The cross-party London Councils Group, which represents the 32 boroughs and the City of London, has approved support for a private Bill to encourage alternatives to plastic bags.

The Bill says that free, throwaway shopping bags should not be handed out and that shops should instead sell re-usable carriers.

Around 13billion plastic bags are used across the UK each year, 1.6billion of them in London.

The decision to push for a ban follows a public consultation in which almost 60 per cent wanted an outright ban on free plastic disposable carriers.

Chairman of London Councils, Merrick Cockell, said: "As a society, we need to do far more to reduce the amount of waste we are sending to landfill."

At Sainsbury's, use of free disposable bags has fallen by 10 per cent in the past six months compared with last year and take-up of reusable bags has risen by nearly 50 per cent.

Tesco has committed itself to reducing the use of free plastic bags by a quarter by the end of next year but it opposes an outright ban.

The store said its plastic bags are degradable and begin to rot down after a couple of months.

Westminster City Council is not backing the proposed total ban and a spokesman said: "We are committed to reducing waste in the borough but we do not think an outright ban or a tax on plastic bags are viable answers."

Symphony Environmental - a degradable-plastics firm based in Hertfordshire - said it is possible to produce biodegradable plastic bags that do not create methane while they rot.

It said the bags it produces, which emit no methane or harmful residues and can be triggered to degrade after as little as six months, should be exempt from any ban.

The company's bags are made from a by-product of oil refining, which would otherwise go to waste as 'flare- off' and emit further amounts of carbon dioxide.