Public Servant Lifestyle

A supermarket chain operating in Scotland been praised by Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead for their policy in reducing the number of single-use plastic bags used by their customers.

Marks and Spencer stores decided to charge 5 pence for every single-use carrier bag sold in store, with the profits generated going to environmental charities.

Mr Lochhead said: "This is an excellent example of how a retailer can help cut down the number of single use carrier bags by its customers and I congratulate Marks and Spencer on their forward thinking. It is very encouraging to see a major retailers adopting measures to protect Scotland's environment.

A Billion Bags

"Reducing the unnecessary use of plastic bags is crucial if we are going to achieve a zero waste society in Scotland. A recent survey showed that some progress has been made but more needs to be done - in Scotland last year we still used over 1 billion bags.

"I welcome any action by retailers to reduce waste from plastic bags. Charging for bags and giving a reward to customers when they return bags are two ways of doing this. There is also a key role for consumers to play as well. One of the ten Greener Pledges we launched in January is to reuse carrier bags.

"We must all re-use and recycle bags as much as possible and whenever we're at the checkout ask ourselves the question - 'do I need a bag?' If the voluntary agreement doesn't produce results then we will have to look again at further action, including considering legislation."

Based on data from nineteen UK retailers 12.4 billion bags were used in the UK in 2007. This is down from 13.4 billion bags in 2006 - a 7.72% drop, once rounding is taken into account. The virgin polymer used was 93,000 tonnes in 2007 down from 108,000 tonnes in 2006 - a 14.3% drop, once rounding is taken into account.

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