The deal between the UK Government and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) covers seven of Britain’s major supermarket chains and aims to reduce the volume of carrier bags provided to customers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 50% against 2006 levels.
Mr Wilson welcomed the retailers’ pledge to reduce the number of bags handed out to shoppers by around five billion in the UK.
The minister said: “This voluntary agreement is very welcome because it will significantly reduce the number of carrier bags without hitting people in the pocket.
“I now call on people in Northern Ireland to support this agreement by changing their shopping habits. We need to make basic changes to the way we shop. Simple things such as bringing our own reusable carrier bags with us and refusing to take new carrier bags at the checkout will help to reduce bag numbers.”
Notes to Editors:
1. Today’s agreement covers single-use carrier bags provided by the supermarkets involved, both paper and plastic. In 2006, around 13 billion bags were used by consumers in the UK.
2. The full voluntary agreement is as follows:
“The British Retail Consortium and Defra, Welsh Assembly Government and the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland are committed to work together to support consumers in radically reducing consumption of single-use carrier bags.
“To this end, supermarkets are committed to continue to support their customers’ actions in order to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in the number of single-use carriers taken by spring 2009 (compared with 2006), consolidating this achievement through support from government consumer engagement campaigns and broader retail involvement. The Governments and the BRC share an aspiration to go further towards a reduction of 70 per cent over the longer term and, supported by leading retailers, commit to joint efforts on consumer engagement as crucial to making this a reality.
“In concluding this voluntary agreement the BRC and Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland call on other sectors giving away single-use carrier bags to take action to support these efforts.
“Progress under this agreement will be monitored by WRAP, and the government, WRAP and retailers will jointly review it in the summer of 2010 (or other date to fit with the Courtauld review schedule).”
3. Today’s agreement applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish Government has a similar agreement with retailers in Scotland.
4. The supermarkets involved in today’s agreement are:
· Asda;
· the CO-OP;
· Marks and Spencer;
· Sainsbury’s;
· Somerfield;
· Tesco; and
· Waitrose.
5. For media enquiries contact DOE Press Office tel. 028 9054 0003 or out-of-hours call the EIS Duty Press Officer on 07699 715440.
