Tesco dumps single-use 5p bags for 10p ‘bags for life’

TESCO is to stop selling single-use plastic bags in its stores, replacing them with “bags for life” to be offered at double the price.

All of the supermarket giant’s 3,500 UK stores will desist with the 5p bags from August 28, in favour of new 10p bags.

Online shoppers will still be able to buy bags for single use.

Tesco said, despite the Government clamping down on free single use bags in 2015, it still sells 700 million 5p bags a year. Like the cheaper version, sales of the new bag will fund community projects in schools, GP practices and local football clubs across the UK, the grocery chain said.

Tesco trialled the new scheme for 10 weeks in Aberdeen, Dundee and Norwich, where they found that bag sales reduced by 25% as customers opted to bring their own from home.

The new bags will be made of 94% recycled plastic and can be exchanged for a new one if damaged.

Matt Davies, chief executive of Tesco UK, said: “The number of bags being bought by our customers has already reduced dramatically. Today’s move will help our customers use even fewer bags, but ensure that those sold in our stores continue to fund thousands of community projects across the country chosen by customers.”

Louise Edge, senior campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “For too long we’ve seen plastic as something to be used once and thrown away. But there is no such place as ‘away’ and millions of tonnes of plastic are ending up in our rivers, beaches, streets and in the sea every year, harming marine life.”

In 2011, Wales started charging 5p per bag and saw a 71% drop in the number used by customers. Northern Ireland introduced charges in 2013, followed by Scotland in 2014. England was the last country in the UK to charge, recording an 83% drop in use.