M&S to charge for carrier bags

Marks & Spencer is to roll out a 5p charge for food carrier bags in UK stores from the beginning of May with profits going to green causes.

The move follows a trial in over 50 M&S stores in Northern Ireland and the south-west of England, which saw bag use drop by over 70 per cent, and raised over £80,000 for environmental charity Groundwork.

Marks & Spencer's chief executive Stuart Rose said: "Just imagine if M&S customers right across the UK cut the number of food bags they use by 70 per cent - that's over 280 million bags they'd be saving every year."

Retailers are under pressure from environmentalists to reduce the number of plastic bags they hand out, most of which end up going to landfill.

Ikea stores in the UK have charged for plastic bags since 2006, with all profits going to England's Community Forests, a charity promoting woodlands.

Tony Hawkhead, chief executive of Groundwork, said: "We all want our neighbourhoods to be cleaner and greener and our experience shows that when a major household name takes the initiative, it can encourage millions of people to change their behaviour."

M&S will launch the national carrier bag charging roll-out in two phases: from Sunday April 6th until Monday May 5th, M&S customers will receive a free Bag for Life (usual cost 10p) with every food transaction; then from Tuesday May 6th a 5p charge will be introduced for standard food carrier bags and the Bag for Life will revert to its normal charge.