M&S to charge customers 5p for plastic bags

[Tomr]

Marks & Spencer is to introduce a 5p charge for grocery bags in England in a move to cut plastic waste.

The company today confounded City forecasts by announcing better-than-expected profits of £451 million, almoost 12 per cent up on last year.

The decision follows a successful trial by the company in Northern Ireland, which has led to a 66 per cent reduction in the number of bags used by shoppers.

There are plans to introduce the scheme in hundreds of M&S stores across the country and other retailers are expected to follow suit.

M&S is leading the national drive by retailers to reduce the nation's reliance on billions of free plastic bags which are thrown out and take up to 500 years to rot away.

The impact of the charging policy - which will begin in February in the South-West of England - will be softened by a decision by M&S to give away free reusable bags to customers in the weeks before the switch.

The decision by the M&S chief executive Stuart Rose to pursue charging is a high-risk strategy. It risks driving shoppers away to rival outlets.

However, Mr Rose said yesterday: "Our initial trial in Northern Ireland has shown us that introducing charging does make customers think twice about the number of bags they use, which is why we are extending our carrier bag charging trial to the South West of England.

"If we see similar results and get an encouraging response from our customers in the South West, we plan to roll this out across the UK."

On his firm's surprisingly good profits, Rose said: "Whilst the short-term economic outlook remains uncertain, the actions we have taken to reposition and revitalise M&S over the last three years put us in a good position to continue to outperform."

The South-West trial will include 33 M&S stores in Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall.

For three weeks from January 13, customers will receive a free M&S Bag for Life with each food transaction. The 5p charge for standard food carrier bags will be introduced on February 3.

The M&S charging system is modelled on the plastic bag tax regime that operates in the Republic of Ireland. Use of the bags fell by 90 per cent after the tax, currently the equivalent of 15p, was introduced in 2002.

[Chickenlady]

Good - it's a start. It doesn't seem to do Aldi any harm.

[Silver Ether]

Well this should be interesting ... have you ever tried to stop M&S staff from popping your stuff into a carrier?

[hamster]

I know, they've had those notices up for months, and I've only once or twice been asked if I want a bag....

Still, I think this is a really positive move. The majority of people won't stop using bags until there starts to be a financial motivation. Hopefully this will be a success, like charging for plastic bags in Ireland, and the initiative will spread to more mainstream supermarkets.

[Stonehead]

I suspect 5p per bag won't make much difference, especially with the sort of people who shop for groceries at M&S. Will an extra 10p for two carrier bags matter to someone who's spending £30-40 on a meal or two?

When I worked in an office opposite an M&S, you'd see people coming out with a couple of carrier bags containing little more than a sandwich or two, a couple of those expensive M&S chocolate bars, a bag of crisps, a drink and a pot of dairy-typ dessert for their lunch. They wouldn't notice an extra 5-10p either.

I would have been more impressed if they'd moved to recycled paper bags, especially for the lunch and snack crowd. And then reduce their packaging overall.

[hetty]

I must be old because I can remember when all shops charged for carrier bags. My Mum still automatically takes her shopping bags with her. I m trying to follow in her footsteps but do sometimes forget.

[Tomr]

I would have been more impressed if they'd moved to recycled paper bags, especially for the lunch and snack crowd. And then reduce their packaging overall.

John Lewis recently looked at moving over to using more paper bags but after a year of research and a feasibility study it was concluded that the manufacture and distribution of the quantities of bags necessary would be more harmful to the environment than continuing to use plastic. I will have to try and find the article from our internal magazine.

[Stonehead]

I would have been more impressed if they'd moved to recycled paper bags, especially for the lunch and snack crowd. And then reduce their packaging overall.

John Lewis recently looked at moving over to using more paper bags but after a year of research and a feasibility study it was concluded that the manufacture and distribution of the quantities of bags necessary would be more harmful to the environment than continuing to use plastic. I will have to try and find the article from our internal magazine.

That's an odd decision to reach.

Trees for woodpulp can be grown sustainably and the resulting paper can be recycled several times.

Plastic carrier bags are made from non-sustainable petroleum based feedstock and can't be fully recycled (re-use as flock for jackets etc is possible).

Also, paper bags rot down while plastic bags don't. They just break up into smaller and smaller particles that find their way into everything.

[Tomr]

Bag to the Drawing Board
From the Gazette, The magazine of the John Lewis Partnership
Copyright © John Lewis plc 2006
April 2006

Plastic bags are known environmental offenders – but what’s the eco-conscious
alternative? Katy Perceval reports on the Partnership’s approach to packaging

Why does the plastic carrier bag get so much bad press? To many people the answer is, quite literally, blowing in the wind: blighting parks and pavements, rivers and lanes – a scourge on the land that will take up to 1,000 years to degrade. But is litter really the main concern when it comes to the ubiquitous carrier? In reality, consumer product packaging accounts for a comparatively small 10 per cent of the waste that ends up in landfill – and plastic bags themselves for just 0.1 per cent of the total. Yet still their tarnished reputation remains.

It’s a love/hate thing. Consumers love the convenience of carrier bags, but are overwhelmed by the number they accumulate in the course of their shopping lives. And there’s the rub: for years, millions of free plastic bags have been doled out automatically, offering little incentive to all but the most ecoconscious to do the right thing and reuse them. In fact, an estimated 9 billion bags are handed out at UK checkouts each year, but only one out of every 200 is recycled.

The Irish government sought to encourage shoppers to reuse/recycle their bags by introducing a plastic carrier bag tax in April 2002. Retailers were forced to charge the consumer 15 eurocents (nine pence) for a bag – and this tax was not allowed to be absorbed by the business.
Initially the move seemed successful, as plastic bag usage dropped by 90 per cent. However, many large retailers switched to tax-exempt paper bags, which some independent studies show have an even greater impact on the environment. Paper might appear environmentally friendly, but it is heavier and bulkier than plastic, generating four times more waste and placing added demands on road transport, thus increasing emissions of carbon dioxide – a powerful greenhouse gas. Critics argue that the tax means the Irish have scored an environmental own goal, simply shifting the environmental burden from the manufacture of plastic bags (which uses non-renewable fossil fuels such as oil) to their distribution. The Scottish Parliament is debating whether to introduce a similar tax to the Irish.

Like many other businesses, the Partnership – which was the last retailer to stop charging customers for plastic carriers in the early 1990s – is actively looking for ways to reduce the number of free bags it gives out, for both environmental and commercial reasons. In 1997 Waitrose became the first supermarket to introduce a reusable Bag for Life (which costs 10p, but is replaced free and recycled into Plaswood furniture) and it is this long-life concept that is the way forward.
Although the food division still gives out 250 million free plastic carrier bags each year, that figure is 54 million lower than it would be if it didn’t sell reusable Bags for Life. The launch of a jute wines carrier and the reusable bags provided for users of Waitrose’s QuickCheck selfscanning system have also had an impact.

Nick Monger-Godfrey, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, points out that free plastic carrier bags account for a small but “very visible” proportion of the total plastic packaging used by retailers – or, in the Partnership’s case, for just 3.7 per cent of the 100,000 tonnes-plus of product packaging handled each year.

“Our approach is to look at minimising our environmental impact across all areas,” he says. “Last August, Waitrose and 12 other retailers – including Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer and T***o – pledged to help WRAP [the Waste and Resources Action Programme] reduce the amount of packaging and food waste thrown away by the British public by signing the Courtauld Commitment. Among other things, this commits us to phasing out packaging growth in our business and we are already improving our efficiency; in fact, we have been using less packaging per £1m of sales for each of the last six years.”

But he confirms that the business takes the issue of plastic bags seriously. “The Waitrose Bag for Life has been successful both environmentally and financially and has the added benefit of being part of a ‘closed loop’ system because we manufacture, replace and recycle it. However, the challenge for us is that even though our customers are generally receptive to environmental issues, the majority still use conventional bags.”

So it’s all about education, then? “Exactly,” says Nick. And last year Waitrose Portishead and Westbury Park in Bristol won an award for their support for a Reusable Bag Campaign piloted in their area by WRAP. During the trial, both branches saw a significant increase in the sale and use of both Bags for Life and the jute carrier. However, other participating retailers weren’t so successful, indicating the challenge that lies ahead. “If we are manufacturing a more expensive and resource-intensive plastic bag, such as the Bag for Life, then customers must remember to reuse them,” says Nick.

Arguably, retailers could offer a bag made from environmentally friendly materials, but there is a reason why this has yet to happen. The 1997 Packaging Waste Directive made it compulsory for retailers to contribute to the cost of recycling a minimum amount (now 65 per cent) of the weight of packaging they put on the market. The legislation has been successful, funding the development of the UK’s recycling network which, in turn, has increased packaging recycling rates from 6 per cent in 1997 to more than 60 per cent today. Having paid for that infrastructure (the Partnership has contributed in excess of £1m per annum since the regulations started), Nick says it would be illogical to make it redundant by removing its feedstock. “Biodegradable materials are the future but, with few if any commercially and publicly available treatment/composting facilities, biodegradable materials will continue to be be disposed of in landfill,” he explains.

However, the Partnership is playing its part in developing and evaluating these materials, as illustrated by its recent trial of a reusable, biodegradable carrier bag in John Lewis Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. “With the possible introduction of a plastic bag tax in Scotland, the Scottish Retail Consortium was keen to offer an alternative to a tax by promoting voluntary measures,” Nick says. “We launched our bag – which costs £2 – in our Scottish branches last November. They have sold well and customer feedback is very positive. John Lewis now intends to introduce a reusable bag in some other shops later this year. We are also currently trialling some biodegradable packaging for fruit and vegetables in Waitrose.”

Other retailers are also being proactive, with Sainsbury’s stating that it has exceeded its packaging reduction target and Marks & Spencer working with potential suppliers of sustainable plastic carrier bags to improve the version it has trialled. T***o’s ‘green trays’ have won awards for their effectiveness.
It all shows, that when it comes to plastic and recycling, there is no time to waste.

[red]

I must be old because I can remember when all shops charged for carrier bags. My Mum still automatically takes her shopping bags with her. I m trying to follow in her footsteps but do sometimes forget.

yeh I must be old too - cos I can remember this

and my mum used to bring all her old bags to the shop rather than having to buy some more - but when they became free, she stopped doing that. so yeh, i think it will help to target those that are not that interested in the environment, but are interested in their purse. it wont target those who are not interested in either, but it is still a start.

Our local co-op charges for recycled corn starch bags, so thats even better.

it was not that long ago the staff in the co-op acted like I was weird for not wanting one of their bags, now attitudes have all changed. this move of M&S is part of the change.

[9ball]

I always remember supermarkets having a big pile of cardboard boxes for customers to take stuff home in. Seems to make sense; the box gets reused before being recycled, the supermarket gets to recycle their boxes for free and the boxes would be going to the supermarket anyway so there is no extra CO2 cost. Does anybody know why shops stopped doing this?

[hamster]

I think it was easier for them to flatten and recycle/throw out the cardboard boxes and provide bags. You can get hundreds of carrier bags into one box, so it's a more efficient use of space for them to provide bags and get rid of boxes themselves.

Yes, I know, I know, it's completely batty....

Tomr, since you're such an expert on John Lewis, do you know how the trial scheme of having bag-free checkouts in some Waitrose stores is going?

[Silver Ether]

I always remember supermarkets having a big pile of cardboard boxes for customers to take stuff home in. Seems to make sense; the box gets reused before being recycled, the supermarket gets to recycle their boxes for free and the boxes would be going to the supermarket anyway so there is no extra CO2 cost. Does anybody know why shops stopped doing this?

Because of the fire risk and folks falling over them when they were stacked at the end of the checkouts

I like the corn bags I think they feel lovely... Its the only bag I accept now and thats only at the butchers.

I like my shopping bags they are so much more reliable than carriers.. and can be washed when dirty from veggies...

[Tomr]

I think it was easier for them to flatten and recycle/throw out the cardboard boxes and provide bags. You can get hundreds of carrier bags into one box, so it's a more efficient use of space for them to provide bags and get rid of boxes themselves.

Yes, I know, I know, it's completely batty....

Tomr, since you're such an expert on John Lewis, do you know how the trial scheme of having bag-free checkouts in some Waitrose stores is going?

I'm a John Lewis Partner (hence I know so much ) so I don't often see the Waitrose updates but I do remember reading a letter about that a couple of months back. Ill have a look at some point. I can get all the back issues online. I did read that we had fairly recently gone over to bio-degradable punnets for a lot of fruit and veg and we were also doing a lot more loose stuff.

[Tomr]

Tomr, since you're such an expert on John Lewis, do you know how the trial scheme of having bag-free checkouts in some Waitrose stores is going?

Hows this for service?! lol
Two more cuttings from From the Gazette

New ‘greentill’ trial encourages shoppers to bring their own bags
May 2007
Trials in Waitrose are aiming to reduce the use of plastic carrier bags and make customers more nvironmentally aware.

Free plastic carrier bags will be removed from all tills in Waitrose Saffron Walden for two weeks from Monday while in 14 other branches – from Lymington in Hampshire to Morningside in Edinburgh – a ‘green till’ will operate where customers will be expected to use their own bags.

Branch Manager Malcolm Domb put his branch forward for the scheme because of the high focus on environmental issues in the Saffron Walden area and among his customers in particular.

Two weeks prior to the trial customers were told about it through posters, leaflets and press advertisements. “Many of our customers already use our Bag for Life scheme and bag recycling facility. By introducing this initiative we hope to continue to raise awareness and have a positive influence on shopping habits,â€