MP Norman Baker takes up plastic bag cause

A Liberal Democrat MP has joined the voices calling to reduce the use of plastic bags, especially by supermarkets. Norman Baker, MP for Lewes, has written to Secretary for the Environment Caroline Spelman to encourage greater government intervention in cutting excessive plastic bag us throughout the UK. He also suggested in the letter that the Environment Secretary convenes a meeting between the main supermarket Chief Executives in order to help achieve this.

Mr Baker is a long-term campaigner for the reduction of plastic bag use and was the author behind “How green is your supermarket”, a revealing research report into the impact of supermarkets on the environment. The report revealed that supermarkets handed out over 18 billion plastic carrier bags each year.

Despite their bad reputation when it comes to the environment, many retailers now take their responsibilities surrounding plastic bags seriously with some launching their own initiatives to curb usage. Waitrose and Marks & Spencer come top of the league for their own efforts to reduce the number of plastic bags handed out in their stores. Both promote the use of environmentally friendly or recyclable bags and charge for standard bags. Two of the main supermarkets, Sainsbury’s and Tesco still hand out bags on request but aim to encourage bag reuse through the award of customer loyalty points for every bag brought in by the customer, whether a used plastic carrier bag or eco-friendly reusable shopping bags. They also discourage plastic bag usage by limiting the amount they put out per shopper and forcing the shopper to ask for extra if required. These practices have had the overall effect of reducing considerably the number of bags handed out.