M&S battles plastic bag waste with 5p charge

by Nikki Sandison, Brand Republic 28-Feb-08, 09:00

LONDON - Marks & Spencer is to begin charging 5p for plastic carrier bags at its stores across the UK, following successful trials in Northern Ireland and the South West of England.

The decision comes hot on the heels of the Daily Mail's campaign to ban plastic bags, which launched yesterday with a nine-page report on the environmental impact.

M&S will charge 5p for plastic bags but will also offer its customers free "bags for life". The retailer expects to hand out 20m in April in preparation for the 5p charge beginning in May.

The bags for life will be replaced free of charge when they wear out and be sent for recycling.

Funds raised from the scheme will be donated to Groundwork, an environmental regeneration charity.

As well as running throughout its food stores, the scheme will also be supported by M&S's franchise partners including BP and Moto.

Some 13bn plastic bags are given away free to UK shoppers every year, and they take an estimated 1,000 years to decay.

Sir Stuart Rose, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, said: "We want to make it easy for our customers to help the environment and our trials have shown us they want to take action.

"Just imagine if M&S customers across the UK cut the number of food bags they use by 70% -- that's over 280m bags."

In 2002, the Irish government introduced a bag tax, currently 16p, which led to a 90% reduction in the use of bags.

UK retailer Ikea and discount outlets Aldi and Lidl also charge for plastic bags.

China's government has recently taken more dramatic measures in its environmental efforts with a total ban on bags under 0.025mm thick. This has resulted in the closure of the country's biggest plastic bag manufacturer Suiping Huaqiang Plastic, which employed 20,000 people.

The Daily Mail is continuing its campaign to "banish the bags" today with a seven-page report on the issue, highlighting M&S as its first major breakthrough. The front page features the image of a struggling giant turtle draped in a plastic bag.

Read Brand Republic editor Gordon MacMillan's blog on the Mail's campaign here.

Comments

James Coates - 28/02/2008

I think it's a great idea, but to make a difference the other supermarkets are going to offer the same to their customers. But what about the smaller convenience stores would they give you a bag for life? The only thing i'm not too sure on is if all of us would want to carry these bags around with us, because i'm always 'just popping to the shop'.

Peter Martin - 05/03/2008

Call me an old -fashioned 'end-benefit sells' copywriter, but I'd be inclined to go with 'M&S battles plastic bag waste with free Bag for Life'. Maybe press releases are different. How ME paying THEM 5p is going to stop litter louts lobbing 'em skywards to end up as a turtle tourniquet remains unclear. Especially as, beyond it being more a litter issue, it's all eventually handled via our current waste stream system, which is woeful. Personally I prefer the Tesco incentive of Club Points or Waitrose re:friendly dedicated till lines to keep things in the loop. But which, it seems, the Daily Mail and Downing Street hadn't negoti... heard of.