UK retailers have committed to achieving a 50% reduction in the number of carrier bags used by next spring.

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The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents all of the UK’s largest supermarkets, has struck an agreement with the UK government on bag reduction.


According to the deal, retailers will halve the number of plastic carrier bags given to customers from 2006 levels, when approximately 13bn bags were distributed.


A spokesperson for the BRC told just-food that the deal builds on retailers’ existing efforts to cut carrier bag usage, which has already dropped by more than 25% since 2006. It is also part of the longer-term aim to reduce bag use by 70%, the BRC said.


The spokesperson said that voluntary measures, such as this, are the BRC’s preferred method of effecting change.

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“In most situations we are in favour of a voluntary approach because it achieves more, more quickly, than legislation can. This is true for the issue of bag reduction,” the spokesperson commented.


While legislation would either require retailers to remove bags or impose a mandatory charge for bags, reductions have been achieved on a voluntary basis “by retailers taking customers with them”, the spokesperson said.


“Retailers are in daily and weekly contact with their customers: their whole business is geared to understanding what customers want and they are more in tune with customers than politicians, who face a vote every four or five years… Taking customers with you is about encouraging, rewarding and persuading customers – because they have this very regular contact retailers are able to achieve this far more effectively than politicians,” the spokesperson claimed.


Progress on the agreement will be monitored by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and reviewed in 2010.