England to Follow Suit of Rest of UK to Curb Plastic Bag Use

England will introduce charges for plastic bags in larger stores in an effort to limit the amount of single-use plastic bags being used across the UK. The decision comes in the wake of findings by Wrap which show that plastic bag use in all of the UK has increased for the fifth year running.

The figures for 2015 showed that 8.5 billion plastic bags were used in the UK last year, up by around 200 million from 2013 and demonstrating that individual citizens use 132 bags each on average. While the number is below the European average of approximately 200, it is still well off the EU’s target of 90 per year by 2019 and 40 by 2025.

Falling into Line

Beginning in October, England will introduce a minimum of 5p charges on all bags obtained from larger supermarkets and stores. To qualify as a larger store, the retailer must have a minimum of 250 employees.

The measure is intended to help the UK comply with an EU Directive announced in May this year which calls for member states to either meet those numbers specified above – or, alternatively, stop providing free bags. England was the guiltiest party out of all member nations of the UK, with their usage rising from 7.4 billion in 2013 to 7.6 billion this year.

Lagging Behind the Rest of the UK

Scotland and Northern Ireland both saw falls in the number of bags used in their respective nations, after introducing restrictive measures in the past couple of years. Northern Ireland brought in a carrier bag charge in April of 2013 and saw this year’s figures drop by 42.6%, following on from a 71% fall immediately after the introduction of the measure.

Meanwhile, Scotland brought in the new charge last year and saw an 18.3% decrease this year. Wales, who introduced their own charge well before the other member nations in 2011, saw a 5.2% increase on last year but an overall decrease of 78.2% since the introduction of the fees.

It’s hoped that England will benefit similarly from the charge, both in terms of environment and economy. This year, the use of “bags for life” in Scottish supermarkets quadrupled from 2014, while they only accounted for one in every 20 bag used in English stores.

“Countries with the 5p charge have seen a dramatic fall in the number of plastic bags taken from supermarkets and we can expect a significant reduction in England, possibly by as much as 80% in supermarkets and 50% on the high street,” explained the resource minister, Rory Stewart. “The charge will also boost our growing economy by delivering savings of £60m in litter clean-up costs and £13m million in carbon savings.”

Reducing Overall Waste for a Greener Tomorrow

As well as these new measures intended to decrease the amount of waste plastic entering our atmosphere, scientists are hard at work attempting to find innovative ways to recycle other materials which have traditionally been destined for the landfill. The article Determining the Value of Waste Materials as Fuel Feedstock Using CHN Microanalysis talks in more detail about how unrecyclable materials can be used as secondary recovered feedstock (SRF).