Free carrier bags a thing of the past as Ireland&#39s bag tax comes into force

From today (March 4), consumers in Ireland have to pay 15 cents or 9 pence at stores for every plastic bag that they use. A campaign to introduce the tax in Ireland has been led by the country's environment minister, Noel Dempsey, who condemned Ireland's “insatiable use of free plastic bags”. Mr Dempsey believes that the levy will reduce the number of bags that are given out to shoppers each year. Research shows that last year Irish consumers used 342 plastic bags each.

Positive

Tesco Ireland welcomed the initiative and Patricia Moroney, of Tesco Ireland, said: “Customers will incur a levy of 15 cents which will be added onto their till receipt. The money will go straight to the government to invest in recycling facilities.” Ms Moroney said that initial customer reactions have been quite positive, but she said that she expects this could change “when it hits them in the pocket”. Tesco Ireland gives out 220 million bags a year and estimates that the levy will reduce this by 40%.

Tesco is now promoting Bags for Life and a reusable blue box. The Bags for Life will cost customers 1 Euro or 1.27 Euros for the stronger bags. Ms Moroney said: “There was no real incentive for the customer to buy these in the past, but now there is.” Tesco UK is thought to be interested in the two new reusable bags.

Ireland is not subject to the same packaging waste regulations as the UK and Nicola Ellen, environmental manager for Safeway, said that she did not think that the tax would be introduced in the UK as the UK is already being taxed through the packaging waste obligations.

James McKechnie, group waste manager, for Sainsbury's agreed that it was unlikely that a carrier bag tax would be introduced in the UK and explained how Sainsbury's is promoting Bags for Life and the reuse of carrier bags through its “penny back scheme” where consumers get 1 pence off their shopping bill when they reuse a carrier bag.

Exceptions

There are some exemptions to the levy, which include: reusable shopping bags sold for 70 cents or more, bags used to contain fresh meat, fish or poultry (whether packaged or not), bags used to contain loose fruit and vegetables and other foods that are not otherwise packaged and bags used to contain ice.