The London Assembly’s environment committee said that a UK-wide tax would be more effective than the London-only ban on disposable shopping bags currently being recommended by the London boroughs through umbrella organisation London Councils.
London shops hand out 1.6 billion carrier bags every year, the committee said, stating that while while some shopping bags were saved and re-used by consumers, most of them end up in landfill sites.
Darren Johnson AM, chair of the committee stated: “There is broad consensus amongst London supermarkets and consumers to reduce consumption of carrier bags but our investigation found that regional action is not necessarily the best way forward.
“London Councils’ proposals to ban single-use shopping bags is a step in the right direction but it is restricted to London. This is a national problem requiring a national solution,” he added.
During the investigation, Mr Johnson visited Ireland where he found that the ban on plastic bags had produced a 94% reduction in their use.
In its report, the Committee maintained that arguments against a levy “perhaps deliberately misunderstand how a levy works”. It went on to report: “Supermarkets informed us that customers want the availability of a bag at the checkout when it comes down to it, that they want a ‘fallback’ option. Under a levy customers would still have a fallback option. It would just cost them 10p.”
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