Now small shops are going to charge 5p for every plastic bag and hand cash to charity

  • Fast food restaurant Subway will also be bringing in charge
  • Association of Convenience Stores decided to adopt charges
  • Move follows the Daily Mail's Banish the Bags campaign

By RICHARD MARSDEN, GENERAL REPORTER

Published: | Updated:

Small shopkeepers and fast food retailer Subway are to levy a five pence charge for each plastic bag handed out.

The Association of Convenience Stores – which represents more than 33,500 small shops and takeaway outlets – has decided to adopt the charges, which are due to become compulsory in larger stores in England from October 2015.

The move follows the Daily Mail’s Banish the Bags campaign, which has highlighted damage caused by discarded carrier bags. In the past two years, there has been a sharp rise in the use of throwaway bags – to seven billion a year.

Levy: Small businesses will charge five pence per bag to reduce the damage caused by discarded bags

Levy: Small businesses will charge five pence per bag to reduce the damage caused by discarded bags

Many are used for only 20 minutes but take up to 1,000 years to rot away. They litter the landscape and kill marine animals and birds, which suffer long, painful deaths after eating them or getting tangled in them.

Money from the new charges, to be introduced in 2015, will be handed to charities who have to deal with the impact of bags on the environment and wildlife.

Shane Brennan, public affairs director at the Association of Convenience Stores, said there was a ‘strong appetite’ among shopkeepers to apply the charges.

But the association wants to stay exempt from rules being implemented for larger retailers, who  must report proceeds back to the Government, to ‘avoid unnecessary regulatory burden’.

Subway, which has 1,600 outlets in Britain, said it would be urging all its franchisees to charge five pence for bags.

Fast food: Subway, which has 1,600 outlets in Britain, said it would be urging all its franchisees to charge five pence for bags

Fast food: Subway said it would be urging all its 1,600 franchisees to charge five pence for bags

The Keep Britain Tidy group believes the charges should be extended to all small shops to avoid ‘confusing’ situations where shops under the same brand but different franchisees have different policies on charging.

‘If a retail brand has some stores owned by the parent business and others owned by franchisees we could end up with some stores charging for a single-use plastic bag while others do not.’

Under plans announced by Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, all single-use plastic bags will cost five pence in supermarkets and department stores in England from 2015.

Scotland will introduce a five pence charge next year. In Wales, where all shops have been forced to charge for bags since 2011, the number distributed has fallen by about 80 per cent. Northern Ireland introduced a five pence charge on single-use carrier bags in April, which will rise to 10 pence.

Most watched News videos