Lidl to ban 5p carrier bags
Lidl will make customers who forget to bring bags purchase the more expensive reusable bags instead, potentially earning the store millions.
Starting January 2017, Lidl shoppers will no longer be able to buy 5p carrier bags to put their groceries in.
The budget supermarket revealed it will stop selling the single-use carrier bags and will instead offer thicker, re-usable plastic bags for 9p each.
The move could result in a huge rise in profits for the supermarket.
At present all proceeds from the 5p bag charge are donated to charity under a Government scheme, but Lidl has no plans to donate money made from the 9p bags.
If all customers buying 5p bags switched to 9p bags, Lidl would earn an extra £567 million a year - although the actual total is likely to be far lower.
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What Lidl says
Lidl has said the move is nothing to do with money, it simply wants to help the environment.
“Our pledge to stop selling single-use carrier bags is all about promoting a more environmentally friendly alternative. It will directly encourage shoppers to think about sustainability, and the role they can play in reducing unnecessary plastic waste,” says Ryan McDonnell, commercial director of Lidl UK.
“The levy introduced by the Government last year was an important start, and as a responsible retailer, we see it as our role to invest in a sustainable future and to bring our customers on that journey with us.”
However, the move could result in thousands of thicker, plastic bags going into landfill and damaging the environment.
Impact of the 5p plastic bag charge
It’s less than a year since the Government introduced the 5p levy on plastic bags used in large stores. In that time the usage has plummeted by around 85%.
A study by Cardiff University found that 90% of us now take our own bags when we go shopping, up from 70% before the 5p charge came in last October.
“One thing that stood out to me was the effects were universal, there weren’t age, gender or income effects,” lead author of the study Professor Wouter Poortinga told The Guardian.
“Everyone changed their behaviour and everyone increased their support for the charge. I think that is important.”
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