So from August 28^th if you pop into your local Tesco store, buy some goods and then realise that you have nothing to carry them home in, you will no longer have the option that 637 million of us took in their shops over the last twelve months and buy a 5p bag. No, your only option, other than to walk out, is to buy a bag for life which will set you back 10p. Of course a bag for life is only a bag for life if you remember to cart the thing around with you. It also uses three times the amount of plastic that goes into a single-use bag.

Still, you can console yourself with the thought that the money that you have paid for a bag will go to a good cause. But figures released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) show that of the £105 million raised through the so-called Plastic Bag Tax last year, only £25 million went to named charities. A further £42 million went to unnamed good causes whilst £17 million was paid in VAT and £4 million was taken by the stores to cover costs. That leaves a shortfall of £17 million unaccounted for.

HMV donated only 43.5% of the monies raised to charity, W H Smith 64.5% whereas Sainsbury donated 80.77%. Tesco donated 71.87 per cent. With supermarket profits under pressure, every little helps, I suppose.

Filed under: News Tagged: DEFRA, how much of plastic bag tax goes to charities, plastic bag tax, Tesco scraps single-use plastic bags