Wharf green

By Kay Harrison on March 6, 2008 11:15 AM |

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It’s been a bad week for plastic bags.

Marks & Spencer has announced that as of May 6 it’s going to charge five pence for every plastic bag customers need to carry food purchases. Now five pence isn’t going to break the bank, but it will be interesting to see if consumers are prepared to cough up or whether some will see this as a moral crusade too far.

M&S reckons it hands out 394million bags for food every year – which is a lot of unused carriers stuffed under the sink.

They’ve already trialled the new charge in Northern Ireland and south-west England and found not only were customers prepared to pay, it also had an effect on how many bags they used. Shoppers soon got in to the habit of reusing bags, getting Bags for Life or bringing their own.
Indeed, M&S is handing out free Bags for Life in the run up to the May 6 charge.
It’s not only the posh chains that are doing the right thing though. Lowly Lidl, much loved by fans of German sausages and impossibly cheap lager, has always charged for bags.
Whether this is a green policy or a cash saver is unclear, and perhaps it doesn’t matter.
The end result is many customers leave Lidl with their shopping in their own bags rather than shelling out three pence a time for branded bags.
Lidl, which has a branch near Westferry DLR in Burdett Road, also stocks a wide range of organic veg and has recently introduced a Fairtrade section including chocolate and sugar, so top marks to them.
It remains to be seen whether other retailers will follow Marks & Spencer’s lead or what impact it will have on their sales.
In the meantime, there are plenty of brands hoping the trend for reusable bags catches on.
Love Your World (www.loveyourworld.com)
produces reusable bags and also run campaigns to declare whole towns and businesses plastic bag free. So far they have run a successful Plastic Bag Free Dundee project and hope to expand to Edinburgh in the spring.
Time for a plastic bag-free Wharf, anyone?

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