SHOPS across England will be charging for plastic carrier bags from Monday (October).
The 5p nominal fee has been introduced in a bid to reduce the number of people using plastic carrier bags just once and encouraging shoppers to re-use their bags.
Statistics show that in 2014, more than 7.6billion single-use plastic bags were given to customers by major supermarkets in England, which equates to 140 bags per person, the equivalent to 61,000 tonnes in total!
Plastic bags take longer than others to degrade and have been attributed to harming wildlife, as well as littering towns and cities for years.
* WHAT do you think? Do you welcome the charges for plastic carrier bags in a bid to get people to re-use their bags more? Or do you think it will be just another thing for shoppers to fork out for, which they can well do without in these tough times? E-mail [email protected] with your views.
