Labour's 10p tax on plastic bags

A tax on supermarket shopping bags in Britain seems certain because a report to the Government on Ireland's recent experiment is understood to recommend a levy of up to 10p.

A 10p tax on each disposable supermarket bag is likely to be among the first environmental policies recommended by Michael Meacher when he returns from the Earth Summit.

Shoppers in Ireland have reduced the number of bags they have been using by 90 per cent since the tax of 15 cents (10p) per bag was introduced in March.

Most Irish shoppers now keep their bags and reuse them. In Britain, only one in every 200 shopping bags is currently recycled.

An interim report on the first three months of the project has predicted that almost a billion plastic bags, one of the biggest litter eyesores, will be saved a year.

In Ireland, the tax windfall is to be used to set up an Office for Environmental Enforcement that will help to dispose of unwanted domestic fridges and freezers.

Confronted with paying 10p for their bags, Irish shoppers started recycling virtually overnight.

Latest figures from the first three months of the tax in Ireland show that bag usage by shoppers plummeted from an estimated 300 million over the three months to 23 million.

Martin Cullen, Irish environment minister, said: "When one considers the scale of the litter problem caused by plastic bags in the past and the resulting cost of clearing them to the taxpayer, it brings home how this incentive has captured the public imagination.

"They have accepted the discipline of bringing their reusable bags with them when they go shopping."

Before the legislation was introduced, about 1.2 billion bags were handed out to Irish shoppers without charge each year. In Britain, the figure is estimated to be 10 billion. Introduction of a bag tax for Britain's millions of shoppers is part of a fresh environmental approach by Labour.

When Mr Meacher ordered the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to look at the viability of a bag tax, he said: "I would be arguing very strongly for putting something through here.

"Obviously, you have to talk about it with Government and get agreement but it is a cracking good idea."

The tax will add about £28 a year to the average shopping bill of British households.

"The report is waiting to be looked at by Mr Meacher on his return," a department spokesman said. "The fact that it is being looked at might suggest to you something." With poor recycling, a large proportion of bags are thrown away, creating pollution problems.

A whale, washed up in northern France last month, was thought to have died after mistaking plastic shopping bags in the sea for squid.

On my first few trips to England in the 1980's, for most shopping you pretty much had to bring your own "carrier bag", which everyone brought into the store themselves. It was only later that plastic bags US style became common. Has everyone in the UK forgotten the not-so-long-ago days so fast? (Of course a lot of people who live there now probably weren't even in the UK twenty years ago!)

Oh great! Something else to look forward to on this side of the pond!

The article states

Before the legislation was introduced, about 1.2 billion bags were handed out to Irish shoppers without charge each year.

This is an outright lie. Supermarkets don't hand the bags out for free. They are priced into the goods that are sold into the store. They are an operating expense. Now if a store wanted to charge the actual price for the bag when a customer chose to use one- fair enough. It would just be itemizing the cost for the customer and removing the cost of the bags from the actual goods. Actually, when looked at like that- it is a good business practice. But for the gov't to place an additional tax on the bags is just an outrage. How many people will lose their jobs now when plastic bag manufacturers go out of business?

I understand your concern about government tax on plastic bags, but it has totally cleaned up the plague plastic bags which has bedeviled this country. These bags were an environmental menace. So now everyone brings their own bag shopping and there's surprisingly very little complaint.

As for the jobs lost, I think nearly all the bags were imported so it's some other countries problem. LOL*

These bags were an environmental menace.

No they were not. The people who simply threw them on the ground were. Littering has been around for ages- long before plastic bags. And this menace you refer to? Could you define that? Are we talking about something more than an eyesore here?

And this menace you refer to? Could you define that?

PLASTIC BAGS moron. Can't you read?? They are such a nuisance, not just an eyesore - cleanliness is very important. It spoils the country side, blocks drains and kills animals and fish that get tangled in it and they do not degrade. The fact that people are now not as reckless about throwing bags away has made a great difference. The plan worked handsomely - if you don't want to pay for a bag then don't. Maybe your upset because most bags we use were imported from britland. TOUGH!

Excuse me. You call me a moron for asking you a question? Would you like to apologize for that now?

I'm not sure why you say I'm upset about the bags being imported from britland- I'm not British. You called the bags a menace- I saw that the first time I read it, and the second third etc. I simply asked you to define why you would call an inanimate object a "menace" when obviously it is the people that throw them away on the ground who are the "doers" in this situation.

But bottom line, you have no call or reason to call me moron. You should apologize. What are we a little sensitive to disagreement?

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