From today, England falls into line with rest of the UK as retailers are now required by law to charge 5p for carrier bags, but unlike the other 3 nations, England will have some exceptions.
In England, customers buying uncooked meat, poultry or fish, prescription medicine, certain fresh produce such as flowers or potatoes, and unwrapped ready-to-eat food such as chips, will still be provided with the bags free of charge.
However, retailers with 250 or more employees must charge at least 5p for the bags they provide for shopping in stores and for deliveries, but smaller shops and paper bags are exempt. Proceeds from the sale of the 5p carrier bags is expected to raise £730m for good causes over the next 10 years and to save £60m in litter clean-up costs.
The British Retailers Consortium (BRC) believe the exemptions mean the move may not be as successful as schemes introduced elsewhere in the UK commenting:
“The new carrier bag charging scheme for England is a missed opportunity and will not have the universal impact it has had in the other UK nations. While obligated retailers have done much to prepare and roll out the scheme, we hope the Government will in due course re-examine the exemption for smaller businesses, look in detail at the success of similar schemes across the UK and apply the charge to all retailers, no matter their size”
A table outlining the four different charging schemes can be downloaded from the BRC here
Government guidance from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is available https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/carrier-bags
Visit www.brc.org.uk where a BRC briefing document for BRC members on carrier bag charging across the UK is available on request.
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