Countries around the world are looking for new and innovative ways to increase recycling and decrease the amount of waste they are sending to landfills. The United Kingdom has been criticized over the last few months for failing to reach many of its own, as well as the European Union’s, goals for recycling and waste management. Hilary Benn recently announced a plan to turn the United Kingdom into a zero waste country and is asking local councils to do their part to come up with new schemes to encourage residents to be greener. Recently Wales announced that they would be charging a fee for plastic bags in an effort to get residents to use less plastic. However, Northern Ireland was not so keen on the idea.
Environment Minister Edward Poots recently announced that Northern Ireland would not follow the example of Wales by putting a levy on plastic bags. This goes against what he said earlier in the year when he pledged to consider the levy if other voluntary programs were not effective. After consideration Poots says the levy is not right at this time because it would put too much of a financial burden on people with low incomes. Some are calling this excuse ridiculous as similar programs have had enormous success in countries like Taiwan and even the Republic of Ireland.
Since the government has failed to act on its promises, individual store chains have picked up the slack in an effort to get their customers to use fewer plastic bags. TESCO has introduced a scheme to reward customers with loyalty and clubcard points if they do not opt to use plastic bags.
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