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Shoppers could face 10p tax on plastic carrier bags
Last updated at 23:22pm on 13.07.07
Jamie Oliver's wife Jools on a shopping trip
Every local council in London is backing changes in the law which would force shops in the capital to charge for carrier bags. If the scheme is successful, the rest of Britain is expected to follow suit.
The proposals have angered retailers who say the proposals are tokenistic, given that carrier bags make up only a tiny fraction of the plastic waste thrown away each day.
And there are fears that the levy - which would cover market traders as well as supermarkets - is unworkable and could become yet another stealth tax.
The plans come from a coalition of 33 Labour, Conservative and LibDem councils which claim an identical scheme introduced in Ireland cut the number of plastic bags handed out each year by one billion.
In theory, the money paid by customers for bags would be passed on by retailers to the local authority.
A spokesman for the London Councils association said: "This is not about raising money, but encouraging people not to use plastic bags unnecessarily. Any money from the sale of bags would go to fund other environmental schemes."
The plans will be included in a London Local Authorities Bill due to be put before MPs in November. The councils say reducing the number of bags used in Britain each year - 13billion - will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 58,500 tons - the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the roads.
Other local authorities are watching closely. If the scheme is approved, other councils will use their powers to put forward similar bills.
However, retailers reacted furiously to the proposals. Kevin Hawkins, director-general of the British Retail Consortium, said plastic bags made up less than 1 per cent of waste going to landfill. "An across-the-board cut or even ban on bags is not appropriate," he said.
"They are needed for unplanned shopping trips. They protect large and easily damaged items.
New laws seek to phase out plastic bags
"The effect of the Irish bag tax is waning and supporters ignore its unintended consequences.
"Retailers have switched to heavier paper bags and sales of thick plastic bin bags have shot up as customers no longer have shop bags to line their bins.
"Both use more energy in manufacture and transport and are more environmentally harmful than thin plastic carrier bags."
The Government is also sceptical. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said there was a danger that people would use more paper bags instead.
"If they use a paper bag just once and throw it away, it breaks down in a landfill tip and releases greenhouse gases," a spokesman said. "You can't automatically assume that plastic bags are worse for the environment than paper ones."
There are also fears that the new levies would be impossible to collect - and would simply line the pockets of retailers.
• The Irish government says that the introduction of its own 10p tax five years ago has been an "outstanding success".
In 2002, shopkeepers in the Republic handed out 1.2 billion plastic bags - the equivalent of 328 for every person in the country. Last year, they gave out 21 bags per person - a fall of 90 per cent.
The tax is also credited with reducing litter. Before the levy was introduced, plastic bags made up five per cent of all litter on the streets of Dublin and other major cities. Last year, it accounted for 0.2 per cent.
Earlier this month, the government raised the levy to 15p. Now, with no free supermarket plastic bags to use in the home, the Irish are reported to be buying more plastic bin liners.
No other country in Europe has introduced a similar scheme. However, many supermarkets have introduced voluntary bans. The Carrefour chain in France, for instance, asks customers to buy reusable bags or bring their own.
Marks & Spencer is charging shoppers 5p for a plastic bag at its Northern Ireland stores and is expected to extend the scheme to the rest of the UK.
Tesco says it has given out 600million fewer plastic bags since it started to give "green points" to store card holders who re-used bags. It also gives out biodegradable bags.
Reader views (26)
I think people should stop using the carrier bags. If we all purchased bags for life, or cotton bags and brought them shopping each time, then there wouldn't be a problem. I guess a bit like a shoppers rebellion!
- Jenny Lollipop, Herts, England
I want free bags.
- Trixie, London NW3
Thanks to Gordon Brown and Ken Livingstone we already pay enough tax. I will not pay for a bag.
- Billy, London
I don't think it makes sense to put a levy on the use of plastic bags because I think it will just make people buy plastic binliners which are not resusable and still create a problem somwehere else.
Myself for example, I never throw away my plastic bags but keep them to line bins amongst a variety of other uses but if this levy comes in, I would be forced to buy plastic bin liners which are not reusable and can only be used to line bins.
- Patricia Nweke, London, England
Surely the supermarkets should provide these? It is already expensive enough in the UK.
- Georgie, London
Tax on plastic bags? What a load of nonsense. Be practical people, I still need to carry my shopping home. Well saying that, I thought I'd try Ocado and see if I can use "online shopping" to reduce the amount of bags I have. And guess what, I get one tin of beans (yes ONE TIN) in a huge plastic bag! And don't even get me started on the amount of people I see putting very little in one bag, thereby ending up with probably 60% more bags than they really need.
The way to combat this is not to tax us poor mugs (as usual). Three ways of effectively reducing plastic bags (Gord take note):
1) Bring back the old bag packer in the supermarket. Train them to be effective packers and let them reduce the amount of bags we carry home! We should NOT be allowed to pack our own bags as we're all just a bunch of stupid idiots. (Well, we swallow these taxes and pay them, don't we? - You arguing?)
2) Make all plastic bags biodegradable (come on people you know it's possible).
3) Reduce packaging! Manufacturers use far too much packaging.
The problem here is by implementing these steps it would hit profits and therefore we're made to look (and act) the scapegoats.
- Jay, London, UK
Free carrier bags have NEVER been a right they are a benefit that has been used and abused for too long and now has to be put to bed. If you don't want the tax to hurt your pocket simply BRING YOUR OWN BAG!
Shoppers being forced to be less lazy and more organised in this way is a small price to pay for lower carbon emissions, emptier landfill sites and less litter and that simply is not an opinion.
- Dan, London
More taxes, just what we need. When will it end?
- Stan, Expat
Why can't the shops not organise themselves? I need bags to transport and to put waste in. Otherwise I just have to buy more binliners? Especially now that the government is cutting the waste collection services you cannot leave all the rubbish in the open.
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
Oh goody, another tax, just what we needed. I personally think we should cut down on bureaucracy, and just have our salaries sent by BACS direct to the government. That we way we could do away with tax collectors.
- Tony, London
The news of the 10p levy is hugely encouraging. We are currently working to introduce a plastic bag-free pilot scheme in a specific area of Merton Borough, which will entail making bags for life either made of cotton or jute available to the public. As a voluntary group working on this, we know that it is essential to bring the public, retailers, local groups and local authorities on board. We also know that a levy such as that introduced in Ireland yields excellent results. Therefore, the prospect of being able to provide the "carrot" through Bags for Life (many of which are easier to carry and pack things into, as well as much better looking) would work even better along with a levy on plastic bags as an essential incentive to reduce plastic bag usage.
- Mariana Cervantes-Burchell, London Borough of Merton
I want to find one of these supermarkets that pack your groceries for you. The two I use certainly don't. The bags are all stuck together so they're impossible to open before half your shopping is piled up in front of you as the checkout operator throws it down the conveyor belt. I mostly use a cloth bag, but do sometimes take a new bag for extra shopping. However, I use these over and over and over for shopping, and then as a bin liner. If people are charged for supermarket bags, they'll just end up buying more bin-liner bags, surely?
- Freyaj, London
Stupid. More taxes! Make these bags biodegradable. These shops and government already get more than enough - UK is the most expensive.
- Georgie, London
Maybe someone can suggest how, without plastic bags, I carry food for a family of 4 each week the 180 yards from where I park my car to my house? Canvas and other bags are neither big enough or flexible enough.
However, Elle raises they issue asking why manufacturers need to use so much packaging in the first place. Not seen any signs they are changing to be green.
- Colin, Balsall Common
Why can't the UK be pro-active and organised like the Irish? They converted to paper bags and encourage people to bring their own hemp/canvas or if you want a plastic bag, 30c. That is the way forward. This government is too slow and backward and needs to learn from others.
We always carry fold-ups with us or recyclable ones. Not difficult nor heady. The public needed to be educated more.
- Kathy Mavro, London, UK
This would be so unfair. Years back when packaging was almost non existant shopkeepers had to provide bags, either brown paper ones or greaseproof paper ones.
I remember my grandmother recycling them and using them again and again.
We need more bags now simply because of the bulky style of packaging.
However places such as Costco do not provide bags but recycle small boxes for "takeout". There's an idea.
- Linda Harris, London
Good idea, but perhaps food manufacturers would consider using less packaging (is it really necessary to have a bottle in a box?) and thus less need to use so many plastic bags in the first place. When I do my weekly shop, for just the two of us, I usually have a bin bag full of packaging after I have put everythig away.
- Elle, W1
If the revenue would be spent on recycling facilities, what would happen to the money currently spent on such facilities? Would it be returned in the form of lower council tax bills? Fat chance.
- Emma, London
In my house we don't have a huge bin, just one that fits shopping bags perfectly so we use them as our bin bags. We also use them to put our recycling in as well, thus not just chucking empty bags out. We also reuse them when we go shopping. What would be the point in charging us 10p other than to get even more money off us?
- S-M Hearmon, London, UK
I'm definitely in favour of reducing the numbers of bags we use but I'd like to suggest that shops advise their staff not to shove things in plastic bags without asking the customer whether such assistance is needed. What could possibly make them think I want my carrots in a small plastic bag if I've placed them loose on the conveyor belt? What possible reason could I have for wanting to place a bunch of bananas in a small plastic bag? If shops could persuade their staff to stop forcing unwanted bags on curstomers, we'd make a difference. Another gripe I have is quality of the bags. I re-use mine but Sainsbury's bags in particular are very easily pierced. And books, CDs and cucumbers often render Tesco bags unusable after only one or two shopping trips. But the so-called "lifetime" bags that you can buy are so large that you'd never be able to carry them if you filled them. Well, I couldn't, anyway.
- Suzanne, London
Paper bags are worse for the environment than plastic ones! More energy goes into making and transporting them, much more pollution is generated in making the paper, and they generate methane (a greenhouse gas) if they are buried in landfill. And they don't even last - one heavy rainstorm and your shopping is all over the pavement! The right solution is to use and re-use plastic bags until they eventually wear out.
- Nigel, London
Considering that Tescos and Waitrose have bins to recycle carrier bags, this is purely revenue gathering operation. If you recycle the bags, then there is no landfill and the damage to the environment is minimal.
As for "too many" bags - business has to comply with food hygiene requirements - keeping chilled, raw, cooked, dairy and non-food items apart to prevent illnesses such as listeria, salmonella, etc. If you pack your own bags, you are not subject to these regulations.
- Graham, Reading, England
Surely this is nonsense, I quote from the paragraph about Ireland.
"Ireland put a 15 cent tax on plastic bags in 2002 and cut their use by 90 per cent within months while raising millions of euros for environmental projects and cutting litter". They must still be using billions of carriers bags in Ireland to enable them to have raised millions of Euros.
- Paul Urban, London, UK
Whenever I'm food shopping they always, always put my shopping in more bags than is necessary. Why not have paper bags like they have in America?
- Lee, London
Good, make it a pound instead. I count the number of people that bring their own bags when I go shopping and basically 9 out of 10 people use carrier bags provided by the store. The best comment I ever heard was that "it dun do da environmen any 'arm, it all goes to China anyway" which to this day I still don't understand.
- Trevor Roll, London
This is a no-brainer - taxing plastic bags should have come in years ago. The retail lobby have been allowed to get away with a voluntary approach, which doesn't work. How many times do you get your goods stuffed into a plastic bag at the checkout without even being asked?
My only criticism is that this plan is for London only - it should be nationwide.
- Austen, London
