Has The Plastic Bag Fee Worked?

We’re now 5 years on and most of us have changed our habits to include taking reusable bags for life to the supermarket for our weekly shop, but whether this is due to the 5p charge, or the desire to be more eco friendly, or perhaps a bit of both, is up for debate. The government certainly believes it’s working, as on July 31st, 2019, they announced that “sales of plastic bags by the seven of the biggest retailers in England have fallen by 90% since the 5p charge was introduced.” But, it’s not all as it seems…

Whilst a 90% reduction does sound impressive, it’s not the full story. It actually just relates to the thin, single use, plastic carrier bags which most shops have phased out, and doesn’t include the 10p+ bags for life, which consumers are definitely buying, and aren’t always using more than once. The big supermarkets are refusing to share data on how many bags for life sales they’ve had due to the likely backlash they’d receive as the numbers are massive. But it doesn’t stop there.

Bags for life require 4 times as much plastic as the lightweight single use carrier bags, as the aim of them is making them stronger, and reusable. However, the managing director of Iceland admitted the supermarket was actually using more plastic, not less, as a result of switching to bags for life, as most of their customers aren’t using their bags for life, for life, so they’re yet to see any benefit from ditching the ‘single-use’ plastic bags.

The plastic bag fee was without a doubt brought in for the right reasons; we’re no longer accepting plastic carrier bags from every shop we go in just because we can, and most of us are trying to remember to take reusable bags with us when we hit the shops, so plastic production for the single use carrier bags is definitely lower. However, we’re all still buying 10 bags for life per year on average, which requires more plastic per bag, so it’s likely that all of the main supermarkets are in a similar situation as Iceland, but don’t want to admit it. 

Once again, like nearly everything with plastic’s bad name, it comes down to the consumer. The government can enforce a fee, supermarkets can only offer reusable bags, but if consumers forget their bags for life (and we’ve all been there), 10p is a very small percentage of the cost of their shopping and won’t ever force them into bringing their bags again and turning the higher plastic content ‘reusable’ bags, into higher plastic content single use bags. Don’t get me wrong, there are some consumers who bought their reusable bags for life years ago and are still consistently using them now and not purchasing any others, but sadly this is the minority of people.

Before the government declares the 5p plastic bag fee a rip roaring success, we need to see the statistics including all plastic bag sales, including bags for life, as without it, we’re lulling ourselves into a false sense of security. We need to know if plastic consumption has really gone down as a result of the fee introduction, as we’re five years on and we don’t really know the true answer yet.