WOW! Plastic Bag Use Is Down 86% in the UK Thanks to Tax

The UK Government has revealed figures that prove targeting single-use plastics with small fees does make a difference and, as it turns out, that difference can be truly impressive. Since introducing the five pence plastic bag charge in 2015, the sale of plastic bags has dropped 86 percent across the seven biggest grocery stores in England.

The new data shows that customers bought almost a quarter fewer plastic bags last year than in 2016-2017, which equals a decrease of nearly 300 million bags. That’s around 19 fewer bags per person – a massive difference compared with the 140 bags from before the charge. The figures come from the “big seven” supermarkets in the country, which are Asda, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury, The Co-operative Group, Tesco, and Waitrose. Additionally, the charge from plastic bag sales contributed almost 60 million pounds towards charities and other good causes.

“These figures demonstrate the collective impact we can make to help the environment by making simple changes to our daily routines,” said Environment Secretary Michael Gove. “We want businesses to continue to look at what they can do to help improve our environment to leave it in a better state than we found it. It is only by working together we will reverse the rising tide of plastic waste finding its way into our rivers, seas and oceans, and the catastrophic impact this is having on our marine environment.”

A recent study conducted by Cefas showed that since the introduction of the charge on plastic bags, there has been an estimated 50 percent reduction in plastic bag marine litter – so basically, IT’S WORKING!

“Every plastic bag not purchased is one which will not end up in our sea, damaging habitats or harming marine life,” said Thomas Maes, Marine Litter Scientist at Cefas. “Since efforts from across Europe came into effect, including the UK’s 5p charge, we have observed a sharp decline in the percentage of plastic bags captured by fishing nets on our trawl surveys of the seafloor around the UK as compared to 2010.”

“It is encouraging to see the efforts to reduce plastic bag usage by all of society, whether the public, industry, NGOs or government,” Maes added. “These figures show that by working together we can tackle the marine litter problem by reducing, reusing and recycling.”

According to government scientists, plastic waste in the sea will triple in a decade unless serious steps are taken to reduce the amount of non-biodegradable trash ending up in the environment. Around one million birds and more than 100,000 sea mammals die every year from ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it. With this in mind, it is more important than ever to get involved and help solve this problem.

The UK is striving to be a global leader in protecting the oceans, seas, and marine life, and they are certainly succeeding. The government recently announced anti-plastic measures that include a ban on microbeads and proposals to extend the five pence charge for plastic bags and even explore plastic-free aisles in supermarkets.

Every year, over 8.8 million tons of plastic waste enter the oceans, threatening marine life and compromising the health of the environment. We can help make a difference by reducing our use of plastic bags, cups, bottles, and other disposable plastics as much as we can – to find out how, check out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign!

Image source: zeevveez/Flickr