The number of single-use plastic carrier bags given to customers by seven leading UK supermarkets has fallen for the fourth year in a row, according to figures released by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP, Banbury / UK; www.wrap.org.uk). The total has dropped from 10.6 bn bags in 2006 to 6.1 bn in the year to May 2010. Each single-use, thin-gauge, plastic carrier now weighs, on average, 7.0g compared with 8.3g in 2006 so that the total weight of single-use bags continues to decline, down 11% from 2008/09 to 44,304 t in 2009/10. Consumption now stands at roughly 100 bags per person per year.

Paul Marmot, chairman of the Carrier Bag Consortium (Nottingham / UK; www.carrierbagtax.com), welcomed the latest figures and said they highlighted the voluntary scheme’s outstanding success, with credit due to both retailers and their customers by demonstrating that voluntary action is preferable to a punitive bag tax. His view was echoed by Barry Turner, chief executive of the Packaging and Films Association (PAFA, Nottingham / UK; www.pafa.org.uk), who said: “The WRAP figures contrast sharply with irresponsible press speculation from certain media and demonstrate that UK consumers can determine their own route to responsible environmental action.”

The largest decline in single-bag usage was 15% in Wales, where consumers are being threatened by a 7p bag tax next year – see Plasteurope.com of 09.11.2009. Predictably, Welsh Assembly environment minister Jane Davidson, the instigator of the bag tax proposal, said the WRAP figures proved that a charge for carrier bags is necessary if consumers are going to make a real difference to the number of bags used in Wales. She urged shoppers to do more in the run-up to the introduction of the bag charge, due in spring 2011, claiming that most of the 400m bags consumed in Wales last year “ended up littering our countryside or rotting in landfill and releasing harmful greenhouse gases.”

Contrasting the overall trend for a continuing decline in bag usage was WRAP’s “snapshot” figure for May 2010. The May 2009 figure for single-use bags was 48% below that of 2006, just missing the 50% target the supermarkets had set themselves. This year the figure was only 45% below that of 2006, suggesting that momentum may be slowing. Total use of carrier bags of all types, however, continued to decline, down from 510m in May 2009 to 502m in May 2010.

e-Service:
WRAP’s “Review of Supermarket Carrier Bag Use 2010” as a PDF document