An agreement between the Scottish Government, Defra, the Welsh Government, and the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and its supermarket members.

Background

  • Target to reduce thin-gauge carrier bags by 50% by Spring 2009 on a 2006 baseline. This target was narrowly missed with a 48% reduction measured for the UK.
  • Levies for carrier bags were introduced in Wales (2011), Northern Ireland (2013) and Scotland (2014), with a levy in England from October 2015.
  • An agreement was made to continue monitoring carrier bag use during the period 2010 - 2014 – although no formal target was agreed to measure against.
  • The 7 participating retailers are: Asda, Co-operative Group, Marks & Spencer, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.

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  • UK Voluntary Carrier Bag Agreement - Data 2014

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Tags

Initiatives

Plastic Packaging Eliminating problem plastics Plastic packaging design Film and flexible packaging

Sectors

Manufacturers Retailers and brands Waste management and reprocessors Local Authorities Packaging producers National government and departments Non-governmental organisations