Unlikely bedfellows Marks & Spencer and Gordon Brown were both quick to join the Daily Mail's 'Banish the bags' campaign, thereby generating some easy headlines and, for both parties, some welcome positive PR.
Critics claim that retailers have always been unwilling to axe their plastic bags because they act as a valuable, moving marketing and branding vehicle as they are carried about the high street. However, Luke Vincent, brand consultant at Dragon, believes the benefit of appearing to do something good will outweigh the loss of exposure from the removal of the bags. 'The actions that brands are taking around being more responsible businesses have more of an impact than the loss of the bags themselves; people are beginning to act more negatively to packaging. I think it will work.'
There is also a danger that the government's proposed statutory 5p levy on bags will not be enough to deter consumers and will simply act as an additional revenue stream for the supermarkets, though Vincent says this won't wash with consumers. He also points out that while the levy 'isn't onerous for the consumer, it will make people reappraise whether they need a bag because it becomes a transaction that has to be offered or asked for'.
Beneath the rhetoric and emotive pictures of choking turtles, birds nestling on nests made of plastic detritus, and bags snagged in the branches of trees - which wags have christened 'Glasgow bunting' - the Mail deserves some credit for tapping into an issue that seems to have some traction, even if it isn't new.
Indeed, some towns in the West Country have already outlawed plastic carrier bags - Modbury in Devon banned them in May last year, forcing consumers to buy 100% biodegradable alternatives, while Tisbury in Wiltshire banned them in December.
M&S has also emerged from the campaign well, although its decision to introduce a 5p charge for carrier bags covers only products sold at its food stores, constituting a total of just 394m bags a year. Proceeds accrued from the charge will be used for environment-related charitable purposes.
However, this plan is not without its sceptics; some say that rather than doing anything decisive, it just moves the onus of environmental responsibility from the retailer onto the already hard-pressed shopper. Nonetheless, M&S' statement has prompted the other high-street retailers to demonstrate that they too are committed to cutting back on carrier bags that are handed out. Aldi and Lidl, meanwhile, already charge shoppers 3p a bag.
Tim Ashton, creative director and founder of Antidote, which created the 2006 Anya Hindmarch-supported 'I'm not a plastic bag' product as part of the 'Change the World for a Fiver' campaign, is not sure that retailers are wholeheartedly in support of ditching bags. 'They are worried that consumers don't like change, that they might lose custom and that they will be losing a valuable marketing vehicle in the bag itself,' he says. 'At the moment, with all the subsequent statements from the other retailers following M&S' lead, it seems as though they are trying to outbid each other with window-dressing.'
Brown's intervention to end the reliance on single-use bags falls short of the measures taken by other European countries, such as Italy and Belgium, which have passed laws charging shoppers for each bag they use, and France, which plans to impose an outright ban by 2012. Developing African nations
are also ahead of the UK; Eritrea, Rwanda, and Somalia banned plastic bags in 2005.
As of next year, the government plans to force supermarkets to charge customers a levy on each carrier bag issued - the proceeds from which they are then free to spend as they wish.
This means that rather than simply choosing whether to jump on a bandwagon, all retailers will have to face the issue. The short-term gain from positive coverage for reducing waste will fade, but in the medium- to long-term there is evidence that the changes may reduce the number of bags distributed: since the Republic of Ireland's government placed a tax on carrier bags in 2002, their use has plummeted by 90%.
If Vincent is right, branded one-use carrier bags could be consigned to history as a phenomenon of late 20th-century consumerism. Alternatively, it may turn out to be just another example of retailers' readiness to flash their green knickers when it is expedient to do so.
Data File: Carrier bags
- In 2007, 12.4bn bags were handed out in the UK, compared with 13.4bn in 2006 - a 7.3% reduction. For every 1bn plastic bags, 9000 tonnes of plastic and 18,000 tonnes of CO2 are produced.
- A consortium of the major retailers has pledged to reduce the 'overall environ-mental impact' of their carrier bags by 25% by the end of this year.
- Tesco issues about 3bn bags a year and incentivises shoppers to re-use bags via the issue of Green Clubcard points. Its bags are biodegradable, but can take 18 months to degrade.
- Asda issues 1.8bn bags a year and offers re-usable bags. It also encourages carrier bag re-use with its 'Go Green for Schools' campaign.
- Sainsbury's hands out 1.6bn bags a year. It has also attempted to increase take-up of its 'bags for life' - 15m were given away last year.
- Morrisons claims to have reduced plastic content and increased the amount of recycled plastic it uses, but does not disclose how many bags it gives away.
- Somerfield issues about 640m bags a year and encourages recycling by giving a free 'bag for life' to shoppers who return five old carriers.
- Waitrose issues 300m bags annually and runs a 'bags for life' scheme.