Still need a bag?

UK sticks with voluntary approach

We use an extravagant 8 billion of them a year. Plastic carrier bags, that is. But leading UK retailers have now signed up to a gentle sort of clampdown. By the end of 2008, they aim to cut the overall environmental impact of the dreaded ‘throwaway’ carriers by 25%.

This is strictly a voluntary agreement, involving the British Retail Consortium and WRAP (the government-backed Waste & Resources Action Programme). It’s flexible enough for retailers to respond as they see fit - whether by addressing how the bags are made, finding ways to get customers to use fewer of them, or ensuring better recycling.

WRAP’s director Phillip Ward, is optimistic that the target will be met - thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions by up to 58,500 tonnes a year. “Where there is genuine commitment, flexible voluntary arrangements like these can be successful in bringing change”, he says.

And if not? San Francisco has just proclaimed itself the first US city to ban plastic-bag use in supermarkets outright. Ireland took a different route, blazing a trail on the ‘bag tax’ front back in 2002 with a €0.15 (10p) per bag levy. The levy was recently raised to €0.22 to stop the punters getting complacent about coughing up. Several other countries are considering the Irish approach, but Defra says no UK tax is being considered. - Irma Allen

2 May 2007

Irma Allen