‘Bags for life’ worse for environment as plastic waste rises with 1.5bn sold in one year
“BAGS for life” are now worse for the environment after it emerged a staggering 1.5bn were sold last year.
Campaigners are now calling for a complete ban on the bags or at least higher charges after research showed households bought an average of 54 a year.
They must be used four times to be better for the environment but the amount of plastic used by supermarkets last year skyrocketed to 900,000 tonnes.
Greenpeace and campaigning charity the Environmental Investigation Agency found in new research that the rising sales of bags for life mean they are used as a disposable option by many customers.
Many supermarkets have stopped selling 5p single-use bags altogether in favour of stronger 10p bags, which are intended to be reused. In 2016, there were 2bn single-use bags sold.
A study by the Environment Agency concluded that plastic bags for life needed to be used at least four times to ensure they contributed less to climate change than the lighter, single-use bags.
The Greenpeace and EIA research says that bag for life sales were cut by 90% in the Republic of Ireland by setting higher prices of 70 cents.
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The report recommends a charge of 70p or "ideally" a government ban.
The research also found that overall supermarket plastic use has risen to more than 900,000 tonnes in 2018, despite pledges by retailers to cut down on packaging.
The previous year, they used 886,000 tonnes of single-use plastic packaging.
Fiona Nicholls, ocean plastics campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: "Supermarkets are failing on plastics and failing their customers.
"We hear piecemeal supermarket announcements on plastic every other week, but in reality they are putting more plastic on the shelves than ever."
The report found that supermarkets had slightly reduced the plastic from own-brand goods but that packaging from branded goods increased.
Only Tesco has given suppliers an ultimatum to cut plastic use or see their products removed from the shelves.
We hear piecemeal supermarket announcements on plastic every other week, but in reality they are putting more plastic on the shelves than ever.
Fiona Nicholls, Greenpeace
The report ranked the supermarkets by their progress on reducing plastic and their future plans.
Waitrose was ranked top for cutting its packaging and trying out refill stations for products such as coffee, rice, pasta, wine and detergent.
Morrisons came second and was praised for setting a quantified target to increase reusable and refillable packaging, as well as making its loose and refillable products 10% cheaper than packaged alternatives.
Government figures released in August revealed the number of single use plastic bags sold by the UK's seven biggest supermarket chains halved in the last year.
Since 2015, when a 5p charge was initially levied, the number being used is down by 90 per cent.
The five pence fee on plastic carrier bags came into force in England on October 5 2015.
The Government introduced a law requiring all supermarkets and large stores to charge a minimum of 5p for every carrier they handed out.
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It was an environment-friendly bid to reduce the use of plastic bags and the litter they cause.
In 2014, the number of single-use plastic bags handed out by supermarkets in England rose for the fifth year running to 7.6billion - the equivalent of 140 bags per person.
The latest figures from Defra show that seven biggest supermarkets sold 549million single-use plastic bags in 2018-19, down from one billion the previous year.
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