Plastic bag charge: Does it make a difference, and how does England compare?

Environment campaigners welcome increase but raise concerns about over-reliance on ‘bags for life’ and paper carrier bags, as Samuel Osborne reports

While the average person in England brought around 140 single-use plastic bags in 2014, that figure has now dropped to just four a year (Getty Images)

By doubling the charge for plastic bags from 5p to 10p and extending it to all businesses across England, the government hopes to reduce plastic waste.

Under the 5p levy introduced in England in 2015, only businesses with 250 employees or more had to charge per bag, while smaller shops could choose to do so voluntarily.

Now all stores, including corner shops, will have to apply the charge in a move the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) expects will decrease the use of single-use carrier bags by 70-80 per cent in small and medium-sized businesses.