Exemption for smaller shops to end, and campaigners say ‘bags for life’ are next targetThe government is to double the charge for single-use plastic carrier bags in England from 5p to 10p and end the exemption for smaller shops from April 2021, as it steps up efforts to tackle plastic pollution. Reinstating the previous price of carrier bags but not taking action on bags for life is only looking at one part of the problem. “The government should be setting legally binding targets now for retailers to reduce single-use plastics by 50% by 2025. Introducing paper bags across all of its 494 stores would save on 90m plastic bags annually, the equivalent of 3,510 tonnes of plastic, it said. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own schemes to reduce plastic bag use.

Source: The Guardian August 31, 2020 04:52 UTC