Now you’ll have to pay 10p for a Tesco bag

BRITAIN’S biggest supermarket is to stop selling 5p plastic bags.

Tesco will replace single-use carrier bags with a sturdy and reusable 10p ‘Bag for Life’. The move will reduce the number of flimsy bags issued by around 700million a year.

Green campaigners welcomed the news and said attention should now focus on introducing a deposit and refund scheme on plastic bottles. It follows the Daily Mail’s Banish the Bags campaign, launched in 2008 to lobby for a 5p bag charge, and the efforts of environmental and anti-litter groups.

However, despite the appearance of green credentials, some believe the move could boost profits and even result in the supermarket giant using more plastic.

The switch could save several million pounds a year because Tesco will no longer have the cost of producing the single-use bags.

Meanwhile because the reusable bags will be almost three times heavier, the total amount of plastic in the bags may increase in the short term.

Tesco said money raised from sales of the 10p bags will fund community projects, with the figure estimated to be £24million a year.

The introduction of the 5p charge in England in 2015, which followed Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, has cut the number of bags handed out by 83 per cent, according to some estimates. This is equivalent to six billion fewer a year.

Tesco’s new 10p bag is made from 94 per cent recycled plastic. It will be replaced for free if damaged.

The decision follows trials in Aberdeen, Dundee and Norwich, which saw sales of plastic bags cut by 25 per cent as shoppers opted to bring their own instead.

Tesco will also be removing single-use wine carriers and cutting the price of its reusable bottle bag from £1 to 40p.

According to Government rules, the firm is not allowed to keep any of the 5p charge from the singleuse bag.

Tesco said: ‘Removing single-use carrier bags will significantly reduce the number of bags sold and will therefore help reduce litter and bags sent to landfill.’