Morrisons customers complain as supermarket launches trial charging 30p for plastic bags

Trial currently underway in select number of Welsh stores

(PA (PA)

Morrisons customers have expressed outrage after increasing the price of its plastic bags from 10p to 30p over the past eight months.

In January, the supermarket announced it was raising the cost of its plastic bags from 10p to 15p and introducing a new paper version in a trial aimed at reducing plastic use across the company. In April, it increased the cost for a second time – on this occasion to 20p.

The latest price increase is currently on trial at a select number of the supermarket’s branches in Wales.

However, the price increase has disgruntled several of the supermarket’s shoppers, with several taking to Twitter to voice their frustration.

“30p for a carrier bag @Morrisons really??? What’s next, a rental charge for the shopping trolley? [sic]” wrote one user.

“I’ve just spent 30p on a carrier bag in Morrisons and I am shocked and upset,” another wrote.

Some customers suggested Brexit was the cause of the price increase, with one adding: “Plastic bags in Morrisons now 30p??....I blame Brexit [sic].”

In response to the backlash, a Morrisons spokesperson told The Independent: "We want to encourage our customers to reuse these bags and the money raised is being reinvested in plastic reduction programmes."

In May, the supermarket announced it would sell 20p paper carrier bags in all stores following a successful eight-week trial at the beginning of the year.

The supermarket explained the paper bags are made from sustainably managed forests and that they are strong enough to carry groceries weighing up to 16kg.

Andy Atkinson, group customer and marketing director at Morrisons, said at the time: “We are taking another meaningful step that will remove an estimated 1,300 tonnes of plastic out of the environment each year.

“Our customers have told us that reducing plastic is their number one environmental concern so introducing the paper bag across the nation will provide another way of reducing the plastic in their lives.”

A 5p plastic bag levy was introduced in England in October 2015, and since then some supermarkets have made an increased effort to reduce plastic use.

However, research has shown that around one third of plastic still used in supermarkets is not recyclable, with a large proportion still going to landfill or being burned.

The 5p wil double to 10p and extended to all shops, under plans set out by the former environment secretary Michael Gove in December. The change will come into effect in January 2020.

The news comes weeks after new figures showed that plastic bag use in England’s main supermarkets has fallen by more than 90 per cent since the introduction of a 5p charge in 2015.

The average English shopper now uses just 10 bags a year, compared to 140 before the charge came in.

Government data suggests that more than 25 billion fewer single-use bags have been issued by the seven biggest food retailers in the three and a half years of the charge than if use had continued at previous rates of 7.6 billion a year.