Retailers have attacked the decision to introduce a 5p levy on plastic bags in Northern Ireland next year even though the experience in Wales suggests substantial savings can be made by retailers, reports today’s Independent Retail News.
The Welsh government introduced a 5p bag levy last autumn, with the proceeds going to ‘good causes’ in the principality.
Tony Lipscombe, who runs a Premier store in Neyland, Pembrokeshire, has been amazed at the beneficial impact the levy has had on his profitability.
He used to give away 6,000 bags a week, but now he has to charge for just 250 bags a week as people are bringing in their own or re-using bags. “They’ve got every kind of bag. You name it, they’ve got it,” he said.
The Premier store has to account for every bag sold and there is a button on the counter till to flag it up as proceeds go to charity, in this case MacMillan Cancer Support.
Harry Tuffins stores in Wales have raised more than £1,600 for the local Hope House Children’s Hospices over the last three months from the proceeds of the carrier bag surcharge.
But retailers in Northern Ireland are uncertain whether the plastic bag levy is intended to reduce packaging waste on environmental grounds or is a revenue raiser for the province’s government.
The 5p levy for single-use carrier bags comes into force in April 2013, rising to 10p for single and multi-use carrier bags a year later.
Glyn Roberts, chief executive at the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association, said the levy was a “tax on hard-pressed working families and will add to the burden of red tape, particularly for small shops who will become tax collectors for this new scheme”.
James Lowman, chief executive at the Association of Convenience Stores, said the tax could “alienate” communities who shopped locally on a regular basis.
Source: Independent Retail News
