Plastic Bag Usage Curbed in UK!

In an effort to stave off mandatory plastic bag tax or banning in the UK two years ago, 21 major supermarkets and chain stores made a pact to cut bag waste by 25 percent. Now the results are in from 2008′s usage, and sure enough: not only did the shops meet the quota, they exceeded it.

Shops gave out 3.5 billion fewer plastic bags last year under a voluntary scheme which has, for now, headed off the threat of a government ban on free carrier bags. Figures from Wrap, the Government’s anti-waste body, show that the number of plastic bags dispensed fell from 13.4 billion in 2007 to 9.9 billion last year, a drop of 26 per cent.

According to the article, not only was there a 26% drop in dispensing of plastic bags at grocery chains, but the usage of virgin materials for plastic bags was slashed by 40%, indicating a rise in effective recycling coinciding with the reduction. With this overwhelming success, the stores have now set their sights even higher, pledging to reduce bag usage to 50% by May as the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs continues to hold fast to the threat of a plastic bag tax if improved standards are not met.

As disposable bag usage dwindles, Londoners have been relying more and more on cotton and jute reusable bags. With any luck, they are learning a shopping habit that will stay with them for a lifetime, whether the bag tax hammer drops or not.

Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 5:18 pm and is filed under The Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.