The plastic bag tax started 10 years ago to stop pollution. But is it actually working?

Yahoo

24-06-2025

Ten years ago, the way Britons carried groceries home changed forever, with the dawn of the plastic bag charge, then set at a relatively paltry five pence.
The measure, which mandated a charge on all single-use plastic bags in supermarkets, came into force in October 2015.
The move had been announced in 2013, with ministers pointing to the fact that seven billion single-use bags were issued in 2012. The adoption of a ban in England followed similar measures in Scotland and Ireland, where ministers said the rule cut the use of bags by 80%.
Then-deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said at the time, 'Plastic carrier bags blight our towns and countryside. They take hundreds of years to degrade and can kill animals.
'This is not a new problem. We've waited too long for action. That's why I am drawing a line under the issue now. The charge will be implemented sensibly - small businesses will be exempt.
'We will discuss with retailers how the money raised should be spent but I call on them to follow the lead of industry in Wales and donate the proceeds to charity.'
The ban meant that single-use packaging was banned for all shopping, with exemptions for items such as uncooked meat and live fish.
The bag ban provoked varying reactions among the public, with one young man taking a £1 supermarket trolley home instead of paying the 5p charge, and commemorating the event with a tattoo, which he said was 'for the bants'.
Others fretted that the ban on single-use bags would see reusable bags used once instead, and environmental campaigners felt it did not go far enough, calling for the ban to apply to smaller businesses with fewer than 250 employees.
David Powell, senior resources campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: 'The English charge is a good start, but it makes no sense that it only applies to big retailers. Shoppers will get mixed messages depending on where they shop. This could defeat the main point of the charge in the first place – to change the way people and stores think about over-using plastic bags.'
From May 2021, the price of a single-use bag increased to 10p and was applied to all retailers.
More than 100 countries have now either introduced fees on single-use plastic bags, or bans on their use.
Figures announced in 2023 showed that the ban had prevented seven billion plastic bags entering the environment, with usage at the main retailers dropping 98%.
The average person now buys two single-use carrier bags per year, compared to 140 in 2014.
But an American study this year was able to quantify the impact of bag bans in the real world, by measuring the difference between areas that have bag bans or fees, and those that don't.
The University of Delaware researchers say that around a third of Americans live in areas with plastic ban measures in place.
The researchers used data from shoreline cleanup projects, and compared plastic levels in the area from before and after bans or fees were introduced.
The researchers found that the introduction of plastic bag policies led to a decrease of between 25% and 47% in the percentage of bags in shoreline waste cleaned up by volunteers.
The researchers investigated 600 different bag bans and fees in different areas, which came into force between 2007 and 2023.
Associate professor Kimberly Oremus said: "There are so many pathways a bag can take from the checkout line at the store. It's great to see a policy that works in such a clearly measurable way."
Strangely, the researchers found that fees are actually more effective than bans in reducing plastic pollution, although they say more research is needed to understand why.
Researchers say that even in places with bag bans, plastic bag pollution is increasing.
The percentage of plastic bags is increasing everywhere, both in places with bans and without.
In places with bans, the pollution is increasing more slowly, the researchers observed.
Oremus said: "We're still getting more plastic bags on shorelines as a percentage of all the cleanup items over time. "It's not eliminating the problem, it's just making it grow more slowly."
The researchers said that plastic bag policies are effective, but more needs to be done.
Despite plastic bans, shoreline pollution is increasing in the UK, with a rise of 9.5% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the Marine Conservation Society.
Volunteers picked up three-quarters of a million items from beaches, with items polluting beaches at a rate of almost two items per square metre.