Sales of plastic bags at England’s seven biggest retail chains have fallen by 90 percent since the nation’s 5-pence charge was introduced back in 2015.
In 2018, Asda, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, The Co-operative Group, Tesco, and Waitrose sold 490 million fewer single-use plastic bags than in 2018.
The data also shows how 5p plastic bag sales have contributed about £169 million ($207 million) toward charities as well as other good causes since the charge was introduced, with over £22 million ($27 million) raised in 2018/19 alone.
Now, the average person in England buys just ten bags a year from the leading supermarket retailers, compared with 140 bags back in 2014 before the charge was introduced.
The total for single-use plastic bag sales reported by all main retailers in 2018/2019 fell 37 percent compared with the previous year.
That’s not the only initiative launched by the United Kingdom to tackle plastic waste: the government had also approved a world-leading ban on microbeads in January 2018; they’ve only recently confirmed a ban on the supply of cotton buds, plastic straws, and stirrers which will go into full effect on April 2020.
The UK also plans to introduce a new world-leading tax on any plastic packaging that doesn’t meet a minimum threshold of at least thirty percent recycled content from April 2022, subject to consultation, in order to encourage greater use of recycled plastic in order to tackle the problem of plastic waste and protect our environment.
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