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Marks & Spencer to Charge for Plastic Bags
It was announced today that Marks & Spencer will be implementing a trial at their Northern Ireland stores to charge customers for each plastic bag used. The charge which will be imposed from 1st July will be five pence per bag. To ensure customers are given a fair deal, from 4th to 14th June, M&S will distribute a "Bag for Life" to all customers in it's food halls. The bags will be produced from recycled material and will come in three designs by the illustrator David Downton.
If the trial is a success the scheme will be rolled out across the rest of the UK. When the Republic of Ireland introduced their plastic bag tax in March 2002, this saw plastic bag use initially fall 95% and generate an annual income of 10m Euro for environmental projects. However, the five pence will not be going into the pockets of M&S, who today also posted a 28.5% increase in annual pre-tax profit to £965.2m. The money will be donated to Groundwork Northern Ireland, the money raised will help fund projects that will address evironmental issues.
"We have all got into the habitof using too many carrier bags and we want to explore how we can encourage people to change their behaviour"
Neil Hyslop, Divisional Executive for Ireland, Marks & Spencer
The introduction of a charge on plastic bags is part of M&S's drive, called "Plan A", towards ethical trading and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. The five-year scheme will see M&S become carbon neutral, stop sending waste to landfill and extend its sustainable sourcing by 2012.
The news has been greeted by many who believe that the tax is a step in the right direction towards a UK tax on plastic bag, and this as Hong Kong also implements a tax on plastic bags of $0.50 or about three pence. However, all this legislation does not include paper bags which as we have seen from the article "Paper or Plastic?" has just as much if not a larger impact environmentally. Should we tax paper as well as plastic?
If the trial is a success the scheme will be rolled out across the rest of the UK. When the Republic of Ireland introduced their plastic bag tax in March 2002, this saw plastic bag use initially fall 95% and generate an annual income of 10m Euro for environmental projects. However, the five pence will not be going into the pockets of M&S, who today also posted a 28.5% increase in annual pre-tax profit to £965.2m. The money will be donated to Groundwork Northern Ireland, the money raised will help fund projects that will address evironmental issues.
"We have all got into the habitof using too many carrier bags and we want to explore how we can encourage people to change their behaviour"
Neil Hyslop, Divisional Executive for Ireland, Marks & Spencer
The introduction of a charge on plastic bags is part of M&S's drive, called "Plan A", towards ethical trading and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. The five-year scheme will see M&S become carbon neutral, stop sending waste to landfill and extend its sustainable sourcing by 2012.
The news has been greeted by many who believe that the tax is a step in the right direction towards a UK tax on plastic bag, and this as Hong Kong also implements a tax on plastic bags of $0.50 or about three pence. However, all this legislation does not include paper bags which as we have seen from the article "Paper or Plastic?" has just as much if not a larger impact environmentally. Should we tax paper as well as plastic?
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Another British company - Bags of Change - is supporting those who want to stop using plastic by selling a range of attractive and sturdy reusable shopping bags. The summer 2007 bag is made from an organic hemp-cotton mix and all shoppers who use it can get discounts on ethical goods in their local independent stores. See the Bags of Change website.
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