CBC, the trade lobbying group fighting environmental misinformation on plastics carrier bags, has welcomed the news that the UK Retailer Voluntary Code has already achieved a 40 per cent reduction in environmental impacts. But it says that if the measurements included full life cycle impacts, it would show the real benefits of lightweight, thin supermarket bags.
The latest WRAP report shows a reduction of 26 per cent on numbers of thin carrier bags distributed by retailers but also reveals a 40 per cent reduction in environmental impacts - achieved by increasing the recycled content of bags, reducing bag thickness and making smaller bags available.
CBC Chairman Barry Turner says: “We continue to support voluntary means over punitive legislation and have been working constantly to ensure the Voluntary Code is measured not just on numbers of bags but the comparative environmental merits of the different bag types. Counting numbers of bags instead of measuring true environmental impacts means the figures are always skewed against the lightweight plastics carrier, which has very low production and transport impacts and is also re-used by up to 80 per cent of households.
“All we ask for is a fair, open and scientifically sound approach to the carrier bag issue in the UK and we have to rely on government to ensure this is achieved. In short, we want science over spin, and the Environment Agency Life Cycle Analysis which promised this in 2007 is still strangely absent. This lack of formal measurement has contributed for some years to media coverage and green lobbying based on ignorance and emotion. It has also led to a failure to recognise that all types of plastics bags represent an excellent opportunity to reduce, re-use and recycle.”
