Customers at all large UK supermarkets will be charged 5p for each single-use carrier bag they use during their shopping trip as part of a new government scheme from this Monday (5 October).
Based on statistics from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - where a bag charge already exists - Tesco anticipates plastic carrier bag use in England to drop by nearly 70 per cent as a result.
Environment minister, Rory Stewart, said:“Using fewer plastic bags will have a huge impact on our natural and marine environment and will help clean up our high streets.
'But if people do need to take a new plastic bag from a shop, they should feel confident that their money is going to a good cause - done properly this new initiative will be of huge benefit to our environment, and to society.'
The bag charge in Scotland and Wales has so far helped raise over £5 million for the RSPB, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Keep Wales Tidy schemes. The bag charge in England is also expected to raise millions of pounds.
The money raised from the 5p bag charge in England will be used to pay for a large number of local environmental improvement projects in communities right across the UK.
Tesco customers, for example, will get the chance to vote in store and online for the projects they most want to go ahead in their own local areas. Six projects will receive funding in each of 432 regions annually, which means that around 2,500 different projects are expected to receive funding from the bag charge after just one year. The amount of funding available for individual local projects will range from £8,000 to £12,000.
