A critical response to England plastic bag charges

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has released the government’s response to its criticisms of the proposed plastic bag charges due to take effect in England in autumn 2015.

In a report released today (17 June), the select committee criticised government for ignoring calls to include all businesses in the charge, instead excluding small businesses. The MPs say that allowing so many retailers to escape the 5p charge will limit the environmental benefits of the policy.

The committee says that the decision will put England out of step with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where all plastic bags are, or will be, included in a charging scheme.

Labour MP Joan Walley, who chairs the EAC, said: "The 5p bag charge is the right solution – it will reduce litter, cut carbon emissions and reduce waste.

"Despite our committee's recommendations, the government has decided not to apply the charge across the board, but to go ahead with its proposed exemptions.

"That risks diluting the benefits of the charge. The decision to only include large retailers is particularly short-sighted and ignores calls from all of the main small retailer organisations to be included in the scheme."

Exemptions ‘confusing’

While the government has dropped plans to exempt biodegradable plastic bags from the 5p charge when it is first brought in, paper bags will still be exempt from the charges, a decision that has been criticised by the committee.

The government has said that paper bags make up less than 0.1 per cent of carrier bags distributed in the UK by the seven major supermarkets; however, the committee criticised the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) for failing to provide data on the use of paper bags from other retailers. Further, research by the Environment Agency has shown that a paper bag has to be used at least three times to have less environmental impact than a single use plastic bag.

The committee states that there will be confusion when "a shopper could be faced with having to pay for a bag in some stores but not in others, depending on which material was used".

Charges ‘will cause confusion for customers and businesses’

Retailers have also come out with criticism of the government’s plans, with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reiterating that the charge will only work if it is kept simple.

A spokesperson from the BRC said: “A carrier bag charge is already working in Wales and Northern Ireland and will be introduced in Scotland in October and it makes no sense to do something different. Why not use the same scheme and keep it simple and effective?

“If we are to have regulation it needs to work for consumers, the environment and retailers. We are disappointed that the government has chosen not to listen to the Environment Audit Committee, environment groups and retailers. This is poor regulation that will cause confusion for customers and businesses.”

‘Missed opportunity’ for awareness-raising campaign

Others, meanwhile, have expressed disappointment that Defra has also ignored the committee’s suggestion to centrally collect revenue from the tax to use it for an awareness-raising campaign. The government expects the charges to raise around £70 million for charity, which shops will donate directly. The EAC wants the £19 million that will be raised as VAT from the charge to also go to environmental good causes.

Jonathan Short, Founder and Deputy Chairman of Eco Plastics, said: “The government has missed an opportunity to take on board the committee’s suggestion to collect revenue from the 5p plastic bag charge centrally, so that it can be spent on specific projects. That revenue should be invested in a public awareness campaign to increase household recycling across the UK for the economic and environmental benefit of local communities. Recycled waste is valuable and communities should be benefiting from it, yet the greatest barrier to effective recycling is still public confusion about what can and cannot be recycled.

“Research shows that people recycle more when they understand what can be recycled, where it goes, what it becomes and how it benefits the local community. A crystal clear communications campaign to get this information to every household is essential if we are to drive up recycling rates and meet our national recycling targets. ECO Plastics urges the revenue to be invested in projects like RECOUP’s Plastics Please campaign, set to launch later this year, and get Britain recycling more.”

Lengthy delays could pose problems

Finally, government has been criticised for its decision to delay exempting biodegradable plastic bags from the tax as it claims such bags cannot be easily separated from plastic bags. In response to the enquiry, Defra publicly stated that: “The exemption for biodegradable bags will not be included in the legislation until standards for the bags have been finalised. This means the exemption will not come into effect with the legislation for the 5p charge in October 2015.”

Tony Breton, UK strategist for Novamont, an EU manufacturer of fully biodegradable bioplastics, said: “We are very concerned about the potential for lengthy delays to the introduction of an exemption – which cause investment hiatus and could be extremely damaging for the UK’s bioplastics and composting industries. The government should speed up the exemption process by using existing robust standards for compostable plastics, rather than go through the lengthy process of creating new standards for plastics which do not currently exist.”

Read more about the EAC’s criticism of the plastic bag charge, or the full response to the plans.