Supermarkets fall just short of plastic bag target

The UK's leading supermarkets today received a pat on the back from the government, despite the release of new figures showing that they have narrowly missed a voluntary target to halve plastic bag use.

According to the new data from the government-backed Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), seven of the UK's largest supermarkets - Asda, the Co-operative, including Somerfield, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose - distributed 372m plastic carrier bags in May this year, a reduction of 48 per cent on the same month in 2006.

The move means the supermarkets have fallen just short of a voluntary target agreed with the government in December 2008 to halve plastic bag use, but Environment Secretary Hilary Benn insisted that he was impressed with the performance.

"This is a great achievement by the seven supermarkets and their customers and it shows that by working together, we really can change our bag habits," he said. "The target of a 50 per cent reduction was only narrowly missed and retailers have really put a lot into this in the last six months."

The government last year made a great play of threatening the supermarkets with legislative action if they failed to curb plastic bag use, with prime minister Gordon Brown responding to a high profile campaign in the Daily Mail by insisting he was willing to use legislative measures to address the problem of waste plastic bags.

However, a spokesman for Defra confirmed that the government was content with the supermarkets' response and was not currently considering legislative measures, such as a ban or levy on plastic bags. "The target has been narrowly missed but this represents a great reduction in plastic bag use," he said. " There are no plans to change our position on taking a voluntary approach to this issue."

But the Welsh Assembly government took a different tack, insisting that the despite the reduction in carrier bag use it is to press ahead with recently announced plans to levy a charge on single use carrier bags.

Welsh Environment Minister Jane Davidson said that while the reduction in bag use was welcome there was still a strong case for legislative action.

"These figures demonstrate that the voluntary approach will only achieve so much," she said. "This agreement does not cover all retailers. I want to look at how we can further reduce the amount of single use carrier bags and how we can encourage more people to re-use bags."