Over the weekend at the Liberal Democrat party conference, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced that England will follow Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland in charging shoppers for bags.
Speaking to Packaging News, Incpen director Jane Bickerstaffe said: "This is political posturing. It is not going to save the world. How are our politicians going to feel when they look back and tell their grandchildren that all they did to help the environment was to put a charge on carrier bags? Carrier bags contribute only 0.03% [source Keep Britain Tidy] to litter in England. Even if you put a charge on them, how do you know that the people paying the charge are not the people who are contributing to the litter? This does seem like posturing and is not going to do the environment any good."
'Governments are exploiting our environmental consciousness'
Echoing Bickerstaffe's views, Symphony Environmental deputy chairman Michael Stephen told PN: "A carrier bag is a very useful product. Only 1% of household waste comes from plastic bags. They are not really the problem the politicians make them out to be. I think there should be a charge on conventional bags but not a charge on degradable ones.
"More and more people are realising that governments and supermarkets are exploiting our environmental consciousness to make us pay more for no good reason. Even if a tax is imposed there will still be very large numbers of plastic bags in circulation, and most governments have no policy for those which cannot realistically be collected, unless the tax is higher on conventional plastic than on oxo-biodegradable plastic so as to encourage a switch to the more environmentally beneficial option."
'Waited too long for action'
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that plastic carrier bags "blight our towns and countryside" and "take hundreds of years to degrade and can kill animals".
He said that this was not a new problem and the government had waited too long for action.? He added: "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."
Elsewhere, Environment Minister Lord de Mauley said: "We have all seen the effects of discarded plastic bags caught in trees and hedges or ending up in rivers where they harm animals.
"Introducing a small charge for plastic bags will make people think twice before throwing them away."
The charging scheme in England is expected to follow the Welsh model in which retailers voluntarily give profits to charity. Small businesses with fewer than 250 employees will be exempt from the charge to ensure that they are not disproportionately burdened by the charges.
Commenting on the announcement, Association of Convenience Stores public affairs director Shane Brennan said: "Retailers share the environmental concerns about the impact of single use carrier bags and have worked over a number of years to reduce the amount of bags they give away.
"Our experience in Wales has been positive. Retailers have seen a significant decline in the amount of bags given away and no significant impact on sales. We welcome the introduction of a similar scheme in England."
