Stores given until spring to cut plastic bags by 70 per cent

The Government has warned stores that a failure to do so voluntarily will trigger a change in the law to put an end to the distribution of free throwaway bags, dubbed 'plastic poison'.

Firms would be required to charge for the bags - with money going to environmentally friendly good causes - in a drive to encourage customers to switch to reusable alternatives.

The tough stance follows evidence that Marks & Spencer's introduction of a 5p charge for bags has brought an 80 per cent cut in the number handed out at tills.

Effectively, to reduce bag numbers by the required 70 per cent from 2007 levels, supermarkets would have to introduce charges voluntarily.

The proposals have the support of all the major political party leaders and leading figures in the administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The target was revealed by Environment minister Joan Ruddock yesterday at an event detailing how firms and stores are combating excess packaging.

It is the first time a Government minister has put a figure on the scale of the reduction stores are expected to deliver in order to avoid mandatory charges.

A cut of that magnitude would bring the number of throwaway bags handed out each year down by some 9.1 billion to 3.9 billion.

Polls have shown that well over two thirds of the public support an outright ban on free bags. A similar proportion supports charging to encourage a switch to green bags.

However, the Government's plans are opposed by the big four supermarkets - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons - which are demanding the right to continue distributing free throwaway bags.

The bags have an average lifespan of just 20 minutes before being dumped. Most end up in landfill where they can take up to 1,000 years to rot, while others blight the landscape and seas, sometimes harming wildlife.

Stores are currently trying to reduce the number of bags by 25 per cent under a voluntary agreement with the Government.

However, Miss Ruddock said that was not good enough, explaining: 'Things have moved on. People are telling us, "We think these bags ought to be ended". They don't think we should go on distributing 13billion single-use carrier bags every year.'

Asked what scale of plastic bag reduction the stores would need to deliver in order to avoid a ban, she said: 'When we met retailers recently, we told them we thought a reduction of 70 per cent would be a ball-park figure. That is the order of reduction.

'If the reduction can be achieved voluntarily, then excellent. If it can't, we will impose charges. We know that is what the public wants.'

The earliest the Government will be able to complete driving through legislation to force stores to stop giving away free bags is the spring of 2009.

The Daily Mail's 'Banish the Bags' campaign has garnered enormous support from community groups, politicians and retailers across the country.

The country's fastest growing grocers, Aldi, Lidl and Netto, say charging for bags prevents waste and allows them to keep prices down.

Miss Ruddock was speaking at a press conference with the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which is funded by the Government to tackle waste, to highlight how stores and manufacturers are tackling excess packaging.

WRAP's chief executive Liz Goodwin insisted there was good evidence from the High Street that people were using long-life bags and baskets, saying: 'People are changing their behaviour.'

WRAP also revealed that the food industry halted the annual growth in packaging in 2007, the first time this has been achieved.