Saturday, 25 July 2015

Charge on plastic carrier bags a great success story

Good news:

The number of plastic bags handed out by supermarkets in Scotland fell by 147 million last year - the first figures since a 5p charge was introduced.
The reduction came despite the levy for single-use bags only being in place for the final 11 weeks of the year.
But in England - where large shops will have to charge for plastic bags from October - 200 million more bags were used in 2014, Defra research suggested.
Northern Ireland saw usage fall by 42.6%, while Wales had a rise of 5.2%.
The fall in Scotland follows statistics released three months ago, which suggested the number of carrier bags being used by shoppers had fallen by 90%.

For more, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-33644662