After joining us in 2013 one of the first projects our Head of Operations Paul Wallace worked on was our response to the Single-Use Carrier Bag Charge (Scotland) Regulations 2014.
A decade on, he reflects on the whether the opportunities that appeared to lie ahead as the first 5p charges were collected have been realised, and what has been learned from the experience. He asks, are there still ‘bags of opportunity’, or has the charge faded from the public consciousness, and what are the right lessons to learn as the Scottish Government consults on the introduction of a charge for single-use cups?
Over the last 10 years a lot has changed, and the way some of our habits have shifted couldn’t have been fully imagined back in 2013. We have lived through a pandemic that generated a massive change in the way we work, with working from home on a regular basis now more common. The way we shop has changed too, and we now shop online more frequently, including switching our big, weekly shops from instore to online, and some local convenience retailers have thrived as people spend more time where they live and support local businesses in residential areas.
More than a decade ago, we identified the issue of single-use plastic bags as litter, particularly on roadsides and by our waterways. Those carrying out citizen science surveys recorded lots of them on beaches. While not number one in the litter hit parade, single-use plastic bags were visible, snagging in trees and bushes and breaking up into smaller pieces, and were causing harm to our wildlife.
We recognised that the introduction of a charge on single-use bags would have a positive impact on the number taken at point of sale, and that the proceeds, collected by retailers, could be used to support environmental good causes in Scotland. We felt there were ‘bags of opportunity’ and we responded to the consultation, supporting the principle but also flagging a number of potential issues.
In 2014 we were delighted to welcome the introduction of a 5p charge for single-use bags, to be collected at point of sale, with the aim of reducing consumption, cutting the amount of waste (and number of bags stored under people’s sinks) and ultimately reducing the likelihood of single-use bags becoming litter.
A year later, we celebrated the news that there had been an 80% reduction in single-use bags being taken at the tills in major supermarkets, who had signed a voluntary agreement to report via an online Carrier Bag Commitment Portal. And we cheered again when our friends at the Marine Conservation Society noted a decrease in littered single-use bags on surveyed beaches.
Since 2014 and the introduction of the charge we, as an environmental charity, have worked hard to secure donations from major retailers and small independent shops to inspire action and make a difference at a local level, supporting communities to improve the environmental quality of the places they love.
We won a public vote put to the customers of Tesco in 2014 and received approximately £1million of bag charge money allowing us to broaden and strengthen our work and directly seed fund 300 local communities, planting more than six million native seeds for biodiversity.
Our work was also supported by H&M between 2014-2017 through funding raised through the bag charge, allowing us to support 200 communities to clean up, green up and beautify the places that matter to them.
The charity sector faces an ongoing challenge of securing funds to cover ‘core costs’ and we are no different. The benefits of receiving bag charge income allowed us to do great work and, to put it simply, these projects just wouldn’t have happened without the opportunities bag charge funding gave us.
Between 2016 and 2024 we received more than £500,000 of donations through the bag charge from well-known retailers to small independents who, even though they don’t have to comply with the regulations, chose to make smaller, but equally valuable, contributions to our work from the charge collected from their customers.
It would be easy to conclude that the bag charge has been a success and move on but that would be a mistake. Yes, it has driven shifts in customer habits, reduced bags being taken at point of sale in supermarkets and generated much needed funds for our charity.
But. And there is always a but.
Our most recent public perception survey on litter highlights that 71% of people still occasionally, somewhat often or very often, see plastic carrier bags as litter in their local area.[1]
If such significant numbers of people are still seeing plastic bags littered we have to ask ourselves why. There is a need to support retailers to move away from providing single-use bags because we believe this would lead to a further reduction of these items in the waste and litter stream, particularly in our more deprived communities where 26% of people report that seeing plastic bags in their local area has become more common.
As we mark a decade since the introduction of the Single Use Carrier Bag Charge in Scotland we're urging consumers and retailers alike not to become complacent – for customers to question where their 10p bag charge is going, for businesses to consider donating to an environmental good cause, and for us all to make the final shift needed to #ChooseToReuse and always carry a reusable bag.
The introduction of the bag charge was a good thing and has had a positive impact but there are undoubtedly things that we could have done better over the last decade to maximise impact, raise awareness on an ongoing basis to maintain positive behaviours, evaluate the impact on litter and behaviour, and made sure it was kept in the public consciousness as well as ensuring the money was making a difference.
We need to make sure we learn these lessons and ensure that they are factored into discussions about the implementation of the single-use cup charge. There is also a risk of making unhelpful comparisons between charges for carrier bags and single-use cups. They are two very different items that serve different purposes and are associated with different behaviours, given the volume of cups used annually and their pervasive nature in our lives we need to make sure that we get a charge right and deliver the changes we all want to see.
Charges on single-use items, clearly, can be a good thing. They can raise awareness of an issue, make people think about their consumption of stuff, shift habits and generate much needed funds. By taking the positives from the bag charge, and implementing the lessons we learned from it, we can make the single-use cups charge an even bigger success.
As we await the outcome of the consultation on charges for single-use cups, we have to view the introduction of the charge for single-use bags as a positive. It has encouraged people to use reusable bags on a more regular basis and lowered, if not eradicated, the amount of single-use bags being littered. It’s not perfect, but – 10 years on – it’s been a good start.
Find out more about how you can donate to support the work we’re doing to keep Scotland beautiful, or learn more about our Cup Movement® campaign to reduce the use of single-use cups.
[1] Unpublished data collected for Scotland’s Litter Survey 2024 by The Diffley Partnership.
