Owen Paterson, the secretary of state for the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra; www.gov.uk/defra), has issued a response reassuring the director general at British Plastics Federation (BPF, London / UK; www.bpf.co.uk), Peter Davis, that extensive reuse of plastic carrier bags would be considered in his group's assessment of whether to place a charge on the items. Davis had written Paterson, who is also a member of Parliament, in December urging him and his department to consider the potential impact of a charge for plastic carrier bags, given that most plastic bags are reused.

Davis quoted a soon-to-be-published German research paper which states that 72% of consumers use plastic carrier bags more than once, while 85% of survey participants responded they used bags more than three times and more than 50% even said they reuse them more than five times. The last usage, Davis said, is often as a waste bag.

Before 2013 came to a close, Defra ran a public consultation, “How a charge for single-use plastic carrier bags will work in England”, which Davis believed was misleading in fairly representing the usage of carrier bags. Key topics at the consultation included the types of bags which should be exempt from any future charge, how best to communicate the charge and how to ensure that organisations are applying the charge. “It’s surprising Defra’s call for evidence barely mentions reuse, which conserves resources and saves fossil fuels,” Davis said.