To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the likely impact of the forthcoming charge for plastic bags on usage; and what are their long-term waste reduction targets.
Answered on
22 July 2014
The Government has developed an Impact Assessment for the forthcoming 5p charging scheme for England. This examines the impact of the charge on businesses, consumers and the environment. Once completed the Impact Assessment will be available to view on the GOV.UK website.
Based on experience in other countries we expect the 5p charge to reduce the distribution of light weight plastic bags from large retailers by 70-80% and overall in England by 50-60%.