The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has released new figures showing that its single-use carrier bag charge has cut usage by 97% across the UK’s major retailers.
The 5p charge was introduced in supermarkets in 2015. Since then, usage at the main retailers has dropped by a staggering 97%.
Meanwhile, over £200 million has been voluntarily donated by retailers to good causes in that time.
As a result of the charge, the average person in England now buys around three single-use carrier bags a year from the main supermarkets, compared with around 140 in 2014.
Last year the charge was increased to 10p and extended to all businesses. This has helped further bring the number of bags used down by over 20% from 627 million in 2019/20 to 496 million in 2021/22.
In total, the reduction has reach 97% since 2015.
Environment Minister Steve Double said:
“Our plastic bag charge has ended the sale of billons of single-use bags, protecting our landscapes and ensuring millions of pounds is redistributed to worthy causes. There is much more to do to tackle the problem of plastic waste.
That is why we are building on our single-use plastic bans and introducing the deposit return scheme for bottles to fight back against littering and drive up recycling rates.”
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