London councils drop free plastic bag ban

London Councils have abandoned plans to ban free, single-use carrier bags in the city.

The London Local Authorities Shopping Bag Bill was due to go to Parliament on Wednesday, but has been dropped in favour of minsters' plans to charge retailers who do not reduce plastic bags voluntarily.

Last year, retailers made a voluntary commitment to reduce throw-away plastic bags by 25% by the end of 2008. And in September, supermarkets promised to make a 50% reduction in the number of free carriers they handed out in Scotland by spring 2009.

Now the Government has said that it will impose a minimum charge on shopping bags if retailers fail to reduce their use of plastic carriers.

London Councils' chairman, Councillor Merrick Cockell, said: "We are accepting the government at its word, and fully expect them to take action against retailers should they fail to reduce numbers voluntarily."

The move has been welcomed by retail groups. Stephen Robertson, director-general of the British Retail Consortium, said: "The costs of dealing with different rules for bags in different parts of the country would have been particularly burdensome."

Robertson said that retailers were on course to meet their targets and have been successful in doing so by working with customers and "not clobbering them with onerous bans or new taxes during these tough times".

A spokesperson for the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) said: "Retailers and Government both realise that single-use carrier bags are an icon of a throwaway society and that this is an issue that needs to be addressed. WRAP will continue to work with retailers and Government on ways of delivering this objective."