The use of plastic bags has dropped significantly since the introduction of a 5p levy in the UK, according to a study by market-research firm IRI.
The study found that the number of 5p levy bags sold by supermarkets stood at 985 million bags, which is well below the 8.5 billion bags that were given away free by supermarkets across the UK in the previous year.
The overall number of shopping bags, including ‘bags for life’, increased from 258 million to 1.7 billion – an additional 1.4 billion bags.
“While it still appears that large volumes of plastic bags are being used by shoppers, the government’s target of an 80% reduction in plastic-bag production was easily met,” according to IRI’s head of strategic insight for retail, Martin Wood.
“The total of 1.1 billion single-use bags in 2015/16 is just 13.2% of the 8.5-billion figure, so close to a 90% drop, which is astonishing.”
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
