How we turned This is a breaker the tide:
May tells even MORE stores to charge for bags after our 9-year campaign
‘A great scourge’
EXTENDING the 5p levy on plastic bags to smaller retailers will slash the number being handed out by millions a year, it emerged yesterday.
Theresa May will announce the move today as part of her landmark 25-year plan to drive down Britain’s use of avoidable plastics.
The pledge is a victory for the Mail’s ten-year campaign to turn the tide on plastic waste which blights our environment and oceans.
Newsagents and convenience stores welcomed the plans last night, saying support for the measure among smaller retailers was ‘very high’.
The Mail launched its Banish the Bags campaign in 2008, calling for single-use polyethylene bags to be banned in Britain. It led to a change in the law in 2015, with all major retailers being made to levy a 5p charge on single-use plastic carrier bags.
The scheme has resulted in 9 billion fewer plastic bags in circulation – a reduction of more than 90 per cent. since then, the paper has campaigned tirelessly to tackle the issue of toxic plastic waste.
our Ban the Beads campaign to outlaw microbeads from cosmetic products which end up in rivers and oceans resulted in a government ban earlier this week.
The paper has also launched a Take Back Your Bottles campaign calling for a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles.
Last year, the Mail was recognised by the head of the UN’s environment programme who held up a copy of the front page headlined ‘Let’s turn the tide on plastic’.
The prime Minister will also praise the Mail today as she brands plastic waste a ‘ great environmental scourge’.
one of the key measures will be to extend the 5p plastic levy to the rest of England’s retailers.
previously small shops and other retailers with fewer than 250 staff were exempt.
More than 200,000 newsagents and convenience stores are likely to be affected by the extension of the charge, which is subject to a consultation before it is formally introduced.
In the UK alone, the amount of single-use plastic wasted every year would fill the royal Albert Hall a thousand times over.
small retailers, Mps from all parties and environmental organisations have welcomed the new plans. chris Noice from the Association of convenience stores said the Government’s plans were ‘good for the environment and good for the retailers taking part’.
He told the BBC that ‘approval for carrier bag charging is now very high’ among the association’s 33,500 members.
National Federation of retail Newsagents president Linda sood said: ‘Extending the levy is good news as it will bring an end to customer confusion while helping NFRN members cut costs, play their part in reducing waste and raising money for local worthy charities.’ Labour Mp Mary creagh, chairman of the influential environmental audit committee, said: ‘This is very welcome, but as with microbeads, we need to go much further much faster.’ Fellow committee member, Tory Mp Zac Goldsmith, added: ‘It was a great step forward when the UK introduced the levy two years ago. But there were needless exemptions, including for retailers who hadn’t even asked for those exemptions, and so it is right and good that they are finally being removed.’
Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Tim Farron said: ‘reducing plastic waste is essential if we are to protect our oceans and marine life.
‘This is a welcome move that is long overdue. we need urgent action to end the completely unsustainable use of disposable plastics in society.’