ACS

The National Assembly's Sustainability Committee is to publish a report calling for a levy on the use of all disposable plastic shopping bags.

The document says a standard charge of between 10p and 20p per bag would raise between £6.48m and £12.96m which could be used to fund environmental projects.

Currently, almost all of the estimated 648 million plastic bags used in Wales annually are distributed free of charge.

The committee spent six months gathering evidence on what to do about plastic bags from a range of organisations and did consider bringing in a unilateral ban.
It decided against outlawing them as it said such a ban would be too difficult to police and instead opted for a levy as the best way forward.

The committee chair Mick Bates AM explained: "We have concerns about the ability of Wales to enforce a unilateral ban on plastic bags. Not only would it demand a large amount of resources to police, there are also issues for those communities living close to the English border.

"We do not consider that banning plastic bags in Wales would be a feasible option for the Welsh Assembly Government. The committee believes that a levy is the best and most practical form of intervention that the Welsh Assembly Government could make and that profits raised from such a levy should be used for environmental benefits.

"Consumers in Wales will soon see that a small change in their purchasing and disposal behaviours can quickly affect a large change on the environment."

If the assembly government decides to introduce a standard charge for bags, Welsh ministers will have the powers to impose it under a new clause in the Climate Change Bill which is expected to pass through Parliament this month.