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UK government strongarms voluntary plastic bag charge

Francesca R

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Francesca R
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7270358.stm

Marks & Spencer seems to have taken the lead in levying a 5p charge on plastic shopping bags effective in May. The government seems to be hoping that public opinion will be sufficiently supportive of this type of measure so that compulsion is unnecessary. I think that has a reasonable probability. However Brown wants to help it on its way with the vague threat of an official tax.

The Irish republic has had a government-imposed tax (EUR 0.15) on plastic bags for about six years.

Any views, cares?
 
Sounds good to me. I like to reuse carrier bags as bin liners, but even then I end up throwing out a lot. A small levy on carrier bags might encourage people to reuse, or switch to cheap cotton bags.
 
Or we could try putting the boot on the other foot and ban the use of non-biodegradable bags. Although I daresay any extra cost involved there would still be passed on to the customer.
 
Whatever happened to biodegradable 'plastic' carrier bags? I remember when I was a kid, there was a display in the Birmingham Science Museum showing the then-new invention in various stages of decomposition. Why haven't they caught on?
 
Professor Yaffle said:
Leading the way? Humph, Aldi and Lidl have been charging 3p for plastic bags for ages!
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Sure, I'll concede that (especially since I didn't research that statement). I remember that Sainsbury's used to run a scheme where they would give you a 1p refund if you re-used a bag and did not demand a new one. But I thought they had scrapped it. The incentive seemed to be far too small to have an influence for someone spending $10 and up on shopping.

The branches of M&S near where I work have large food-halls that do a brisk trade in take-away sandwiches and lunch items and that is the area where I think bag use is the least necessary (people carry a bag with three things in it for 100 metres back to their office, then bin it, every day) and where there can be the biggest reductions.
 
Ian Osborne said:
Whatever happened to biodegradable 'plastic' carrier bags?
Click to expand...

As well as the Tesco plan, the Co-Op have been using them for a few years now. I don't know why the uptake hasn't been faster.

On the subject of charging, when our local Safeway transmogrified into Morrisons they instituted a charge of (I think) 5p per carrier bag. The universal reaction from the customers was one of total disbelief, and after a couple of weeks of glaring and dark mutterings the charge was dropped.

The buggers still make me find a pound coin for the honour of using a trolley though.
 
The Daily Mail is claiming credit for this. I can't help feeling that otherwise they'd be ridiculing the whole thing as being some sort of left-wing, PC plot.

The Prime Minister will introduce legislation next month to impose a charge of 5p or even more on all giveaway bags next year if they fail to comply.

And today he throws his weight behind the Daily Mail's landmark "Banish the Bags" campaign with an impassioned plea to retailers.
Click to expand...


I can't help feeling that what Tesco do is more likely to work, giving bonus loyalty points if you re-use a bag.
 
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zooterkin said:
The Daily Mail is claiming credit for this. I can't help feeling that otherwise they'd be ridiculing the whole thing as being some sort of left-wing, PC plot.
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Quite! :D

And as the Daily Mail campaign only started this week, the government must've reacted pretty quickly if it was the paper that spurred them into action. Far more likely the Mail benefitted from some seriously serendipitous timing.
 
acuity said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7270358.stm

Marks & Spencer seems to have taken the lead in levying a 5p charge on plastic shopping bags effective in May.
Click to expand...

Down here (in deepest Devon) M&S has been trialling this for a while now. Customers have not rioted, so the idea will be rolled-out countrywide.

It's difficult to see how legislation could be introduced to outlaw plastic bags completely. I think that a unit tax is the way to go. We use old ones as bin liners but I'm sure we could become accustomed to using paper sacks instead.
 
Ian Osborne said:
Whatever happened to biodegradable 'plastic' carrier bags? I remember when I was a kid, there was a display in the Birmingham Science Museum showing the then-new invention in various stages of decomposition. Why haven't they caught on?
Click to expand...

Notice that they're not biodegradeable, they're just degradeable. The ones Tesco use at least. While they claim, as Prof Yaffle's link says, that they turn into harmless water and carbon dioxide (like we need more of that) after 60 days, what they actually do is disintegrate into a pile of little bits of plastic after a couple of years. I suspect this may have something to do with why they haven't caught on.

zooterkin said:
I can't help feeling that what Tesco do is more likely to work, giving bonus loyalty points if you re-use a bag.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, what Tesco seem to do is give bonus loyalty points if you reuse one of their bags. If you use, say, an old rucksac, they just don't care.

Ian Osborne said:
And as the Daily Mail campaign only started this week, the government must've reacted pretty quickly if it was the paper that spurred them into action. Far more likely the Mail benefitted from some seriously serendipitous timing.
Click to expand...

Or, even more likely, they knew the announcement was coming and wanted to get in there first so it looked like they thought of it.
 
By far the simplest is to do away with those bags altogether. People quickly get into the habit of bringing their reusable bags with them.
 
666 said:
Down here (in deepest Devon) M&S has been trialling this for a while now. Customers have not rioted, so the idea will be rolled-out countrywide.
Click to expand...
Yes I read this had been trialled in the SW of England and in N Ireland. I assumed that people were piling into their 4X4s and driving up to Hampshire to shop ;)

It's difficult to see how legislation could be introduced to outlaw plastic bags completely. I think that a unit tax is the way to go. We use old ones as bin liners but I'm sure we could become accustomed to using paper sacks instead.
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There's no real need to criminalise plastic bags, just to cut down on what appears to be easy-to-avoid waste, in the public interest.

Cuddles said:
Unfortunately, what Tesco seem to do is give bonus loyalty points if you reuse one of their bags. If you use, say, an old rucksac, they just don't care.
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That was what Sainsburys did, though the loyalty reward was a pittance. It misses the point because it implies that they are trying to boost demand for their bags.

I'm sure the government would regard it as a big victory if they managed to engineer "voluntary" taxation in this way (albeit the revenue does not go to the government) so that they could claim that consumers demanded it rather than nanny-statism. I actually think that is quite close to the truth (consumers are largely supportive, and see it as a "polluter pays" measure), but not completely. Probably not enough for libertarians to like this . . .
 
The purpose of this tax is what? To reduce plastic usage? To reduce plastic bags blowing around? To reduce the number of stupid birds or otters choking on the bags?

Does plastic bag manufacturing even show up on the radar statistically for plastic usage?
 
Cuddles said:
Unfortunately, what Tesco seem to do is give bonus loyalty points if you reuse one of their bags. If you use, say, an old rucksac, they just don't care.
Click to expand...
Our local Tescos don't seem to care which bags you use, only how many.


Or, even more likely, they knew the announcement was coming and wanted to get in there first so it looked like they thought of it.
Click to expand...

So cynical! ;)
 
Whilst it may (perhaps) cause someone to think twice about getting a bag just to carry their M&S sandwich, with the kind of money spent on a weekly shop nowadays is anyone really gonna care about spending twenty or thirty pence extra on the convenience of bags?
 
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A while ago, I needed cardboard boxes to move books.
I asked at ASDA if they had any.
"No. We incinerate them".
 
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