Pressure builds on Defra to drop bag levy exemption

Environmental and packaging sector bodies have called on the government to ditch its planned exemptions for biodegradable and paper bags from the proposed carrier bag levy.

The comments follow the release of a report by MPs which described the plans as confusing.

The Commons Environmental Audit Committee published its report yesterday (February 6) into Defras plans for a 5p charge for single use carrier bags which is set to come into effect in England from 2015 (see letsrecycle.com story). The Committee concluded that Defra had made its plans unnecessarily complicated by including exemptions.

Opponents of the exemption for biodegradable bags say that it is not possible to recycle degradable bags alongside standard plastic carriers due to the difference in the material and promoting their use could undermine the recycling of plastic films and send conflicting messages over waste reduction.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Keep Britain Tidy and the Industry Council for research on Packaging & the Environment (INCPEN) have all urged Defra to reassess the proposals in the wake of the report.

INCPEN

In a statement packaging industry body INCPEN said that where a levy is to be applied, it should include all single use carriers, including biodegradable and paper bags.

The statement said: INCPEN contends that if there is to be a charge it should apply to all bag types whether cotton, jute, paper or plastic.

A major study conducted by the Environment Agency showed that all alternatives to the thin plastic carrier bag have a higher environmental impact and that thin plastic bags were an environmentally responsible way for consumers to carry their groceries home. The governments own research found that on average 80% of thin bags are already reused either on further shopping trips or around the house.

Whats worse than ignoring the science or confusing the public is that the proposed exemption for biodegradable plastic bags risks damaging the UK plastics recycling industry.

Meanwhile the CPRE, which coordinated the Break the Bag Habit campaign in support of a bag levy, said that the inclusion of exemptions could limit the effectiveness of the scheme.

Review

Samantha Harding, campaign manager for the CPREs work on litter, said: If the government is serious about having a charging scheme that will equal the success of those in Wales and Ireland then it has to urgently review its current proposals.

Without a change in policy the exemptions in place could limit the effectiveness of the scheme, confuse consumers and exclude small retailers from the benefits the charge will bring to the large supermarkets.

Imposing limitations on the carrier bag charge will undermine the central tenets of the scheme. When resources are so limited, why is the government proposing a national scheme that would ultimately fail to deliver significant environmental benefits, to say nothing of missing an opportunity to help small retailers reduce their costs.

Exemption

Anti-litter charity Keep Britain Tidy has also welcomed the report from the Environmental Audit Committee and said that the ball is now in the governments court to amend its proposals to include exemptions in the levy.

The charitys chief executive, Phil Barton, said: When in autumn last year, the government announced its plans to introduce a charge in England, they did so proposing to exclude paper and biodegradable bags and said that smaller retailers will also be excluded.

He added: We are delighted that the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee has agreed with us and are calling for the charge to be implemented with no exemptions.

This is great news and now the ball is firmly in the governments court who now need to implement the charge as soon and as simply as possible so that communities in England can start benefiting from a positive measure that will improve the environment just like it has done in Wales.