Defra considering plastic bag charge

The Deparment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will decide whether to impose a charge on single use carrier bags in England sooner rather than later, according to Minister David Heath.

The Farming Minister was speaking at a debate in the House of Commons last week (October 17) following increased pressure on the government over the issue.

Mr Heath told MPs that the department was waiting for analysis of data from the first full year of the levy in Wales before making a decision on its policy.

Responding to questions about when the department might be likely to announce its position on a bag levy, the Minister said: I will not give a firm answer to that, because we want to look at the data, but I hope that we will be able to make an early evaluation of the data.

Once we are clear that we have a full-year set of data and we are convinced that the effect is beneficial, we can make a firm decision, and I do expect that to be sooner rather than later.

The motion was tabled by the Conservative MP for Richmond and North Kingston Zac Goldsmith, who said that England was miles behind Wales, which introduced a levy on single use bags in October 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Stealth Tax

Mr Goldsmith, with support from Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, argued that a charge on carrier bags should be used to fund community and charitable projects, and not go directly to the treasury as a stealth tax.

He said: We are an extraordinarily wasteful country. We generate enough waste every hour to fill the Albert hall right to the tip of its dome. Plastic bags do not constitute the majority of our waste, but of all the waste that we do generate, the plastic bag is surely the most idiotic.

Plastic bags have a disproportionate impact [on the environment]. We are told that 16% of all the animals that are found dead on the coast are dead as a result of their interaction with plastic bags. The plastic bag has a hugely disproportionate impact in the wider marine environment and in terms of littering and so on. Yes, I accept that plastic bags are not the whole waste story in this country, but they are certainly a big part of it.

Opposition to the motion came from Conservative MP for Rugby and chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Packaging Manufacturing Industry, Mark Pawsey, who claimed that the environmental impact of waste plastic bags was overstated and said retailers should be subject to a voluntary system for charging.

Progress

The debate comes a week after the Recycling Minister Lord de Mauley confirmed in Parliament that Defra was monitoring the progress of similar measures among the devolved administrations.

Responding to a question on the governments position on the issue, Lord de Mauley said: We are monitoring developments in other parts of the UK, including the results from the introduction of the charging scheme in Wales, together with Northern Irelands plan to launch a charge from April 2013. We are also interested in the outcome of the Scottish consultation on a charge.

Support for a charge on single use plastic carrier bags in England has been gathering pace in recent months with the Liberal Democrats voting to support the measure at their party conference in Brighton last month (see letsrecycle.com story).

A motion has also been carried by the Greater London Assembly to lobby government on the imposition of a levy on single use bags.

This followed the launch of the Break the Bag Habit campaign in August, backed by groups including the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) and Keep Britain Tidy (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Heath is now set to raise the issues discussed during the debate with Lord de Mauley, who is leading Defras work on plastic bag waste since taking over the recycling brief from Lord Taylor.