Tesco urges more recycling rather than levy on plastic carrier bags

Last week, the Welsh Assembly launched a three-month project to promote the re-use of plastic carrier bags among the public in Wales. Supported by supermarket chain Asda, Welsh environment minister Sue Essex said it would “help inform discussion about any possible environmental taxation measures similar to those in place in the Republic of Ireland”.

But speaking to letsrecycle.com, rival supermarket chain Tesco dismissed the idea of a plastic bag tax as “a real headache”. Tesco has over 75 stores in Ireland, where a levy equivalent to 10p has been placed on each plastic carrier bag.

Tesco spokesman Steve Gracey said: “We don't think a creditable case has been made for a plastic bag tax. Our experience from our stores in Ireland has been that it does not work, for two main reasons. Firstly, people may not use plastic bags but many people are now just taking their baskets home. They take out their goods, and then what do they do with the baskets? They just throw them away.”

Security
“And secondly,” he continued, “a real headache is security issues surrounding the re-use of plastic bags. You simply cannot tell between goods have been paid for and those that haven't.”

The Welsh project will see Walmart-owned Asda encouraging shoppers to re-use carrier bags in its 14 Welsh stores. Meanwhile in England, Durham county council has set about trying to sign up local supermarkets to do more to encourage the re-use of carrier bags (see letsrecycle.com story).

But Mr Gracey said that Tesco had no plans for a re-use campaign. Instead, he said, the chain believes the best way to tackle the estimated 8 billion bags used by shoppers each year is by recycling them.

He explained: “We're looking at tackling the problem of plastic bags by having recycling banks in the entrances of our stores and recycling the plastic. We're looking at recycling the plastic into traffic cones.”

The chain won an award for its carrier bag recycling bank scheme, from which 12,314 tonnes of plastic was recycled in 2001 (see letsrecycle.com story).