About a month ago, on October 20 to be exact, the world north of the English border stood still.
The Parliament had passed a legislation forcing us all to do the unthinkable; pay a 5p charge for single-use carrier bags in the shops.
But let’s look at the facts first.
Back in 2012, Scotland used about 715 million plastic bags for transporting their shopping home. These often end up as litter, not only spoiling the nature, but also endangering wildlife all over the country. Not to forget wasting money and resources on the production of single-use carrier bags. Since Wales had introduced a similar law successfully in October 2011 and their bag use is down by 75 percent now, “Zero Waste Scotland” came up with the legislation, officially called “Carrier Bag Charge Scotland”.
Its aim: to reduce the visible impact of litter and also encourage people to re-use their shopping bags. Although there are exemptions from the charge, like small carrier bags for uncooked meat, vegetables, pick ‘n’ mix, etc., the biggest change will be in consumers’ minds. Most people have already started to take their reusable bags with them to transport their shopping, only resorting back to the buyable bags when running out of their own.
Maybe one day the theory will be fully adapted and retailers will not even offer plastic bags anymore. Until then, the profits will be available to each individual retailer in their own way, although “Scotland’s Carrier Bag Commitment” is encouraging to donate these to good causes in Scotland.
Help the environment by choosing recyclable bags and re-use them as often as possible. For more information, check out carrierbagchargescotland.org.uk.
Featured photo by Ivaylo Andreev.
