Marks & Spencer has achieved an 80% reduction in the total number of food carrier bags used since it began charging customers for the bags in May.
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The UK retailer said today (24 July) that M&S customers have used over 70m less plastic bags in the last ten weeks alone.
As a result, M&S is giving customers a free ‘Bag for Life’ with each food transaction this weekend, from 24 July to 27 July, in a bid to encourage more customers to “think twice about the number of single use carrier bags they use”.
With all profits from the GBP0.5p charge going to charity, around GBP200,000 (US$400,000) has been raised for M&S’ environmental charity partner, Groundwork, the company said.
“It is fair to say that M&S’ carrier bag charging policy has provoked a lot of debate but these figures show that the overwhelming majority of our customers support charging and are already helping us to make a huge difference by bringing their own bags in with them when they shop with us,” said Sir Stuart Rose, M&S executive chairman. “We hope to encourage more customers to take action with our free Bag for Life giveaway this weekend.”
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By GlobalDataThe move is part of M&S’s Plan A commitment to reduce carrier bag usage by a third and send no waste to landfill from its operations by 2012.
