Marks & Spencer has announced that it will charge 5p for plastic carrier bags at their stores nationwide http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7268283.stm This follows on from a series of trial schemes at M&S stores where the bag charge has been introduced.
Many of the major retail companies signed up “to adopt a shared objective with the government and WRAP to reduce the environmental impact of carrier bags by 25% by 2008”. Other retailers have tried to meet this target by changing the materials bags are made from, offering bags for life and giving loyalty card points for reusing bags. If this new initiative has a similar impact to the plastic bag tax in Ireland it will significantly reduce the number of bags that M&S uses – possibly by around 90%.
Experience from the Republic of Ireland shows that their Plastic Bag Tax did have a dramatic reduction in the number of plastic bags used per person – bag usage fell from 328 bags per person prior to the tax to 21 bags after the tax. However, opponents claim that the number of plastic sacks purchased for refuse disposal has increased since the tax was introduced.
The indications are that M&S will achieve a large cut in plastic bag use – especially in their food areas. It will be interesting to see if the other major grocery retailers follow suit.
What percentage of the waste stream is made up of plastic bags?
In overall household waste management and disposal terms plastic bags are largely irrelevant as they only represent a very small percentage of the overall waste stream. However, they are a problem as litter. Visit any landfill site after rough weather and you will see trees and hedgerows littered with plastic bags for miles around.
A waste analysis of household waste in Cheshire in 2000 showed that around 2.8% of the waste in the area was made up of plastic film - (www.cheshire.gov.uk/waste/Downloads/Household_Waste_Composition.htm). Plastic bags would only make up a fraction of the total amount of plastic film.
The Scottish Parliament examined the possibility of introducing a plastic bag levy of 10p per bag. However, after studying various Life Cycle Assessments for plastic bags it was decided that a voluntary code with retailers to reduce the impact of plastic would be the best way forward. Similar codes are used in Australia and New Zealand.
One interesting option is the Danish system where the plastic bag levy is paid be the retailer for each bag they distribute. This system provides a clear incentive to retailers to reduce the number of bags they give out.
You can read more about policy responses to the issue of plastic bags in the ‘Bioplastics –Degradable, Renewable, Compostable’ report, which is available on the Resource Efficiency Knowledge Transfer Network at www.resource-efficiency.org
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Question: Why are retailers (and politicians) interested in the environment?
Answer: Because the general public are.
Over the last couple of years an increasing number of retailers have, depending upon your point of view, been introducing sustainable development programmes or jumping on the green bandwagon.
One of the things that may have caused an increased interest in environmental issues is an increased interest from the general public in these areas. The graph below shows the results from the monthly Ipsos MORI poll of political attitudes in the UK. Each month Ipsos MORI asks as a part of its political survey:
• What would you say is the most important issue facing Britain today?
• What do you see as other important issues facing Britain today?
The graph shows the percentage of respondents who have rated Pollution and Environment as the most important issue each month since October 1988. The late 1980s saw the peak of public environmental concern. For one month in July 1989 ‘Pollution and Environment’ was rated as the most important issue facing the UK (35% rated it as the most important issue – the next highest was the NHS on 29%). This surge of environmental interest probably contributed to why I decided to take a degree Environmental Science in 1991.
The importance of the issue rapidly fell away and the issue never scored above 10% from late 1991 to 1997. This brings us to the increased interest in 2007. In January 2007 19% of those surveyed rated the environment as the most important issue. There was a clear spike of interest around this point and over the course of 2007 the environment scored a higher average importance rating than for any year since the peak of interest in the late 1980s and early 90s.
Over the last couple of years an increasing number of retailers have, depending upon your point of view, been introducing sustainable development programmes or jumping on the green bandwagon.
One of the things that may have caused an increased interest in environmental issues is an increased interest from the general public in these areas. The graph below shows the results from the monthly Ipsos MORI poll of political attitudes in the UK. Each month Ipsos MORI asks as a part of its political survey:
• What would you say is the most important issue facing Britain today?
• What do you see as other important issues facing Britain today?
The graph shows the percentage of respondents who have rated Pollution and Environment as the most important issue each month since October 1988. The late 1980s saw the peak of public environmental concern. For one month in July 1989 ‘Pollution and Environment’ was rated as the most important issue facing the UK (35% rated it as the most important issue – the next highest was the NHS on 29%). This surge of environmental interest probably contributed to why I decided to take a degree Environmental Science in 1991.
The importance of the issue rapidly fell away and the issue never scored above 10% from late 1991 to 1997. This brings us to the increased interest in 2007. In January 2007 19% of those surveyed rated the environment as the most important issue. There was a clear spike of interest around this point and over the course of 2007 the environment scored a higher average importance rating than for any year since the peak of interest in the late 1980s and early 90s.
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