56 per cent of people support plastic bag levy

Fifty-six per cent of people in England are in support of supermarkets introducing a levy on plastic carrier bags, according to a recent survey carried out by Which?

For the September issue of Which? Magazine, the product-testing and consumer campaigning charity polled over 1,110 adults in Great Britain between 30 May and 1 June 2012, asking them whether they thought supermarkets should be doing more to reduce plastic bag usage.

The poll found that over half of English citizens were in support of paying a 5p charge for a single-use carrier bag and that 62 per cent of people felt that supermarkets ‘do not currently do enough to encourage plastic bag recycling’. Of the 34 per cent opposed to a charge, 70 per cent felt that they already paid enough for their shopping without added expense, while 45 per cent felt that they were entitled to free bags.

Despite only comprising less than one per cent of household waste, plastic carrier bags have been noted to make up a significant portion of visible pollution, and 80 per cent of Which? survey respondents said they were ‘concerned’ about the environmental effects of single-use plastic bags.

The survey results have been announced in the wake of a recent call to impose a levy on plastic carrier bags in England. The ‘Break the Bag Habit’ campaign (which has already garnered heated criticisms from the plastic bag industry) was launched in August by a coalition of environmental organisations that called upon the government to implement a levy on plastic bags.

Currently, England is the only home nation in the UK not to have a carrier bag fee, according to WRAP, who recently released figures showing that plastic bag usage increased by 7.5 per cent in England in 2011 compared to 2010. Calls for implementing a fee have been gathering strength in recent times, as more and more statistics show that introducing a fee can produce a marked decrease in use. According to Which?, supermarket chain Morrisons saw an 80 per cent drop in plastic bag usage after the Welsh Government introduced a nationwide 5p compulsory fee for plastic bags in October 2011.

Other findings in the poll included: an average of 17 single-use plastic bags are stored at English households; 92 per cent of people re-use their plastic bags; 74 per cent of people re-use plastic bags as bin liners; and 8 per cent of people throw away plastic bags after a single-use.

Further information on the ‘Break the Bag Habit’ campaign can be found on the Keep Britain Tidy website, and a link to join the petition can be found on the SAS website.

The full Which? survey can be found here.