High Street stores exceed bag reduction target
According to www.packagingnews.co.uk, the UK’s leading high street stores and supermarkets have exceeded a voluntary target to reduce the environmental impact of carrier bags by 25% by the end of 2008, according to figures released today by Wrap.
Since 2006, retailers have delivered a 40% reduction in the environmental impact of carrier bags, as measured by the reduction in the amount of virgin plastic used.
Retailers have achieved this by reducing the number of carrier bags issued by 26%, from 13.4 billion to 9.9 billion in 2008, increasing recycled content used and reducing carrier bag weight.
Liz Goodwin, Wrap chief executive, said: "Consumers deserve congratulations for these results as they clearly show we are moving away from using bags once to re-using bags often. They are also a credit to retailers who have worked hard to find innovative ways of helping us re-use our bags."
The data also showed that initiatives by retailers to reduce the environmental impact of carrier bags have resulted in a 23,000 tonne reduction in the weight of carrier bags issued.
Jane Milne from the British Retail Consortium added: "With this first target met and exceeded we are now working to halve the number of bags taken by May this year."
Meanwhile, the Carrier Bag Consortium said that Wrap’s figures demonstrate that the voluntary route is best.
Chairman Barry Turner said: "We continue to support voluntary means over punitive legislation and have been working constantly to ensure the Voluntary code is not measured just on numbers but the comparative environmental merits of the different bags types.
"Counting numbers of bags instead of measuring true environmental impacts means the figures are always skewed against the lightweight plastic carrier which has very low production and transport impacts and is also re-used by up to 80% of households," he added.
The target to reduce the environmental impact of carrier bags was part of an agreement with UK governments and industry in February 2007.
Retailers involved in the scheme include Asda, Boots, Co-op Group, DSG International, Home Retail Group, John Lewis Partnership, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Next, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
