Four UK trade bodies have joined together to present a united front in lobbying Scottish and UK parliaments and politicians, with the aim of “putting science over spin” in the ongoing debate over carrier bags.
The group consists of the Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA), The Packaging and Films Association (PAFA), The Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) and The British Plastics Association (BPF).
Together the four bodies have called upon Richard Lochhead (Scottish Government cabinet secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment) and Lord de Mauley (resource management minister at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Defra, in London) to “abandon any thoughts of introducing mandatory charges on carrier bags”.
Consumer habits
“There is no evidence to support the frequent suggestions that introducing bag charges delivers overall environmental benefits or that in some way restricting the numbers of carrier bags in use will make consumers more environmentally-conscious in other areas of their lives,” says PAFA CEO Barry Turner.
“In fact, all that is needed is for consumers to follow best practice by re-using or recycling their bags once they have served their very useful first purpose of carrying food and shopping safely.”
Higher priorities
CPI director general David Workman says: “CPI stands alongside PAFA on this issue. We do not accept that a charge on single use carrier bags is the appropriate way of dealing with litter, which is a social problem. The continued attack on packaging is a distraction from other issues that are of greater environmental impact.”
The new group asserts that there are: “Far more important macro environmental issues that require immediate attention if the UK is to ensure a sustainable and secure future.”
It also believes a disproportionate amount of time, cost and effort is spent on the topic of carrier bags, which it says make up “less than 1% of the average person’s carbon footprint”.
The group believes CEOs of major retailers understand that carrier bags are “not a significant contributor to their environmental impacts” and suggests the existing voluntary industry code should be more widely recognised as a sensible and workable solution.
Existing approach
Under the UK voluntary code, introduced in 2004, retailers were encouraged to reduce the environmental impacts of carrier bags and educate shoppers on the need to consider the numbers and types of bags they needed.
The voluntary code was seen to deliver real benefits, not just as the overall number of bags decreased, but also because the environmental impacts of bags were reduced by 60% over four years.
This was achieved by greater re-use of bags, and those in circulation using the lowest possible amount of material and higher percentages of recycled content.
The number of front-of-store retailer recycling points also increased fourfold.
The new industry group, which is now backing ten years of work by PAFA’s Carrier Bag Consortium (CBC), says that Government and the popular press “should be building on the success of the voluntary industry code” and recognise that small subsequent increases in usage are “more than offset” by the other steps taken to reduce impacts.
The new industry group states that it intends to provide the public, industry and Government with accurate information on bags and their impacts relative to other, major environmental issues.
