Mandatory charges or levies on single-use carrier bags

#00090

Require retailers to charge a small mandatory fee per single-use carrier bag at checkout. Even a small charge cuts bag use and bag litter by around 80%, nudging shoppers toward reusables — a low-cost policy with fast, measurable results.

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California, United States

Partial

California municipalities (bag bans); economic analysis by R. L. C. Taylor · Region

California municipalities began banning single-use carryout bags from 2007 onward, with statewide policy following. A 2019 peer-reviewed economic analysis (Taylor, R. L. C., *Journal of Environmental Economics and Manag…

Share of eliminated carryout-bag plastic offset by increased trash-bag sales (by weight)~28%

United Kingdom

Success

UK governments (Wales 2011, NI 2013, Scotland 2014, England 2015) · since 2011 · National

The UK introduced a mandatory single-use carrier-bag charge progressively — Wales (2011), Northern Ireland (2013), Scotland (2014) and England (2015). The MCS Beachwatch citizen-science beach survey recorded a steep, su…

Plastic bags on beaches (per 100 m)~5 bags per 100 m in 2014 → ~1 bag per 100 mbags per 100 m

Beach bag-litter reduction over a decade~80%%

2 sources

communityfix.org