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Reduce Reuse Recycle

Biodegradable Plastic bag blight The bag backlash

Bag-free zones Supermarket targets What you can do

They hang from trees, clog up waterways, litter beaches, blow along city streets. According to a YouGov poll, in 2008 we got through 9.9 billion bags, which equates to 162 bags per person and is enough to fill 188 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Plastic bags are a blight on our land. They only account for 3.5 to 5.3 per cent of the total plastic packaging used but they get everywhere and take 400 years to break down.

Now, at last, the backlash against plastic bags is underway. Ireland showed the way by slapping a tax on plastic bags in 2002. Within a year the number of plastic bags given out dropped by 90 per cent. From those still used, the revenue generated for the Dublin exchequer was £2.25 million.

In the UK moves have been made to phase out the bag habit. In 2006, the Government and major retailers agreed to reduce by a quarter the number of plastic bags they handed out by 2008 and offered incentives to those who reused their plastic bags. For example, customers at a number of supermarkets can earn points on their loyalty cards for reusing old bags. Such initiatives meant that the retailers actually exceeded their target, reducing the number of bags given out by 26 per cent.

When Sainsbury's launched the cotton 'I am not a plastic bag' carrier designed by Anya Hindmarch in April 2007 as an alternative to plastic bags, there were queues for a style accessory that became a collector's item.

In April 2009, as part of the Government and the British Retail Consortium's 'Get a bag habit' campaign, the leading seven supermarkets made a further commitment to halve the number of bags they give away by the end of May 2009. The campaign was launched to encourage even more shoppers to reuse their carrier bags. Tips on how to do so included storing used plastic bags in bag caddies by the front door or keeping a few in cars or handbags for impromptu shopping trips.

The biggest breakthrough could come if London bans plastic bags. San Francisco and Paris have already done so. The Devon town of Modbury was the first to set an example by becoming a plastic-bag free zone.

Shops including the local Co-op, the butcher, fruit shop and deli have replaced them with the town's own reuseable cotton alternative. Shopkeepers in around 80 other small towns and cities are also moving towards a ban on plastic bags. Brighton and Hove Council, for example, is encouraging shopkeepers not to hand out plastic bags to customers. Some farmers' markets have stopped giving plastic bags to customers too.

All 33 London councils have been looking into the problem of the estimated 1.6 billion bags given out in the capital each year. There has to be a change in legislation before they can ban them and it will be at least 18 months after the London Local Authorities (Shopping Bag) Bill 2007-2008 is debated in Parliament before this is likely to happen.

Further afield, China banned shops from handing out free plastic bags in June 2008. In 2006, the Australian state of Victoria became the first on the continent to ban free plastic bags. Now other states are considering a similar move.

In 2005, the major supermarkets have made pledges to reduce packaging, although many critics and consumers believe that more could be done. Friends of the Earth, for example, is encouraging supermarkets to investigate plant-based plastics for carrier bags.

• In February 2008 Marks & Spencer began charging customers 5p per plastic bag, with the money raised going to an environmental charity
• In 2007, Asda agreed to cut packaging by 25 per cent on its own-brand packaging by 2008
• Co-op introduced the first biodegradable carrier bag in 2002 and uses degradable netting and trays for some of its organic fruit and vegetables
• By 2012 Marks & Spencer says all its packaging will be recyclable or compostable
• Morrison's introduced compostable packaging to its own-brand organic produce in 2007
• Tesco's less ambitious target is to reduce by 25 per cent packaging on own-brand and branded products by 2010
• Sainsbury's is stepping up the proportion of fruit and vegetables it sells loose and pledged to reduce by 25 per cent the amount of packaging on fruit and vegetables by 2008. Its new carrier bags are made with one-third recycled material
• Waitrose introduced the reusable 'bag for life' in 1997 (customers buy a bag for 10p, which is replaced for free when it wears out. Returned 'bags for life' are recycled into furniture). Fifty per cent of its organic range of fresh produce is available in degradable, biodegradable and compostable packaging

Here's what you can do to cut back on food-packaging waste:

• Buy fruit and vegetables loose or in paper bags
• Take bags with you to the supermarket - hang them on the back of the door, keep some in your car or handbag, or store them somewhere visible to remind yourself
• Get into the habit of carrying a spare bag for spontaneous shopping
• Choose larger sizes rather than individually packaged portions. Buy a single larger-sized container (yoghurt, for example) and decant into smaller jars or containers as needed
• Look for biodegradable packaging, such as cardboard or cornstarch-based containers and buy these instead of alternatives wrapped in bulky plastic or polystyrene
• Find out if there's a local milkman who will deliver in glass bottles that can be used over and over again
• Ask supermarket managers what they're doing to reduce packaging waste and insist that they step up their efforts

Updated April 2009