Durham county council seeks views on plastic carrier bag tax

The council has been looking at the issue for some months, and has carried out a survey that revealed about 65 million carrier bags are used by Durham residents each year – around 650 tonnes of material that mostly goes to landfill.

As well as indications from environment minister Michael Meacher that he is very much in favour of a carrier bag tax, Durham Council has been following a bag tax scheme that has already been set up in Ireland. The Irish government has put a levy of about 10p on each bag for consumers to pay.

Commenting on Durham's position on the issue, spokesman Fraser Davie told letsrecycle.com: “The UK government is known to be considering a similar scheme, and DEFRA are currently putting together a report on the issue. It's not something we can introduce ourselves, however, but what we're saying in Durham is if the government do decide on anything, we would be happy to be a test-bed for any trials.”

Public opinion
An article in the local paper, the Northern Echo, which includes a telephone poll, is now starting the next stage of the council's carrier bag thought process. The council wants information about local public opinion on the issue, and so far around 70% of calls in the phone-in have supported the idea of a carrier bag tax.

“Let's spark a bit of debate on the issue, and see how the public think about it,” Mr Davie said.

Within the first four months of the Irish scheme, plastic carrier bag usage had reportedly fallen by 90%. Revenue from the tax – about 2.25 million – is to be used for environmental improvement schemes.

However, critics of the tax have pointed at a rise in the use of paper bags – increasing the amount of paper going to landfill – and an increase in the sales of black plastic bin bags as many people had used old carrier bags as household waste containers.

• Victoria Wooton has been appointed waste minimisation partnership officer for Durham county council. A key role of the position will be to raise public awareness of current schemes which address waste reduction, minimisation and recycling within County Durham and Darlington.