Tesco scraps all 5p bags

But it’ll make its customers pay 10p for a reusable ‘bag for life’ instead

TeSCO is to scrap its 5p single-use bags and make customers pay up to 10p for reusable ‘bags for life’.

It is feared the move will allow the supermarket to dodge a law requiring proceeds of single-use plastic bags to be given to charity.

As a result of the law, Tesco has donated more than £27million to 3,500 good causes such as improving parks, sports facilities and school playgrounds.

however, the higher charge may deter shoppers from throwing away millions of plastic bags. The giant is running a trial on removing the single-use bags in favour of the sturdier type.

Significantly, the law on making payments to good causes does not cover the thicker bags, meaning Tesco could pocket the profits.

The law introducing a 5p charge on single-use plastic bags came into effect in Scotland in October 2014. It had already been running for more than a year in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Many chains, including Morri- sons, Asda and Waitrose, decided to hand the full proceeds of the 5p bag charge, minus vAT, or 4.16p a bag, to charity.

Tesco has been donating 3.59p from the 5p charge to good causes. The rest goes towards vAT and administration costs.

Now the retail giant appears to be following a policy adopted by Sainsbury’s, which decided not to offer single-use bags after the law changed. Sainsbury’s instead offers thicker bags that can be replaced in stores if they are damaged. It means it is not required to donate anything to charity – but it does give around 1p per bag to good causes.

Tesco is running a trial at three stores – Aberdeen, Dundee and Norwich – where bags for life cost 8p or 10p. It will run for ten weeks and seems likely to be rolled out to thousands of other stores. During the trial, Tesco has committed to continue making donations to good causes, although this is volretail untary. The company was asked whether it would commit to giving the same amount to good causes if the new regime is expanded.

It said it would provide details on this after the trial is over.

The Daily Mail fought to tackle plastic bag waste, blight and littering through its ‘Banish the Bags’ campaign.

Tesco led efforts to block the 5p charge on plastic bags before it was introduced but after the law changed, the supermarket celebrated a huge fall in the number of bags being bought.

Tesco has given out 1.5billion fewer single-use carrier bags since the introduction of the charge in england in 2015 than it would normally have done in the same period.