Almost 10 years after the UK introduced a charge on single-use carrier bags on Oct. 5, 2015, the effects of the policy are showing on UK beaches.
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), a UK-based charitable organisation, has recorded an average 80% drop in the number of plastic bags found per 100 metres of beach over the last 10 years in its latest beach clean programme.
According to MCS’ annual litter survey, volunteers found an average of one plastic bag every 100 metres of coastline surveyed last year, compared to an average of five carrier bags every 100 metres in 2014. The organisation has carried out the survey since 1994.
“Collecting the data every single time is really vital for us to push for change and having that robust legacy of data for 30 years now means we can really explain the problem,” said Lizzie Price, UK beach watch manager at the MCS. “We’ve seen an 80% drop in plastic bags on our beaches, and we’re now starting to see a drop in plastic cotton bud sticks, a drop in cutlery, so any of the policies they’ve put in are starting to see a positive effect of the reduction [of pollution] on our beaches,” she added.
The carrier bag charge ranges from GBP 0.05 to GBP 0.25. It was doubled to GBP 0.10 in England and Scotland in 2021 and stands at GBP 0.25 in Northern Ireland and at GBP 0.05 in Wales.
Before the charge was introduced in 2015, supermarkets in England gave over 7.6 billion single use carrier bags to customers during 2014. That’s around 140 bags per person, the equivalent of about 61,000 tonnes in total. In 2019 to 2020, supermarkets supplied 564 million single-use carrier bags, a reduction of over 7.4 billion bags compared to 2014.
As of 2021, the UK government reports that the number of bags used has gone down by more than 95% in England.
The MCS said the results show that policies targetted at reducing pollution work. The association is using the opportunity to call on the new UK government to move forward with a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) that includes glass as well as plastic bottles.
The UK government has postponed the introduction of a DRS three times. The scheme was first announced in 2018 and was due to launch in August 2023. It has since been pushed back to 2024, 2025, and most recently to 2027.
UK government ministers have blamed delays on the Welsh government’s insistence to include glass in the scheme, alongside plastic and metal. The UK government said doing so would be too complicated and expensive.
Environmental associations have criticised the UK government for succumbing to lobbying and giving different treatment to glass bottles.