The Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

DEFRA

Nobel House

17 Smith Square

London SW1P 3JR

7 August 2012 

Dear Caroline,

I am sure you are aware of the Break the Bag Habit campaign, launched recently by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Keep Britain Tidy, the Marine Conservation Society and Surfers Against Sewage, and which calls on the Government to reduce litter and waste by requiring retailers to introduce a levy on all new single-use bags.

I completely support this call and have always argued that we urgently need legislation introducing a mandatory tax on every plastic bag used.

As you know, similar schemes elsewhere have been hugely successful, with the 15 cents tax in Ireland, for example, resulting in a 90% drop in plastic bag usage. Crucially, it also raised 3.5 million Euros which was then spent on environmental projects throughout the country.

An obligatory 10p 'plastax' per bag, would be an effective way of encouraging the use of re-usable bags and 'bags for life'.

Such a levy would also help address some of the environmental problems caused by single use plastic bags, from the oil-based materials used in their production to the vast numbers lying as waste in open landfill sites, damaging wildlife whether they end up strewn across our towns and streets or the countryside and our green spaces.

I am also very concerned about the impact single use carriers bags have on our beaches and marine environment and just recently I took part in a Surfers Against Sewage Beach Clean at Paddle Round the Pier in Brighton, helping to remove litter that included plastic bags.

The Marine Conservation Society say: “Single use bags and plastic bags in particular are a menace to the amazing marine wildlife found in English waters. Animals get entangled in them and mistake them for food. This can lead to infections, strangulation, starvation and even death.

A levy is a simple, effective way to stop such a pervasive and ubiquitous form of pollution.”

You will be aware that the Prime Minister shares widespread concerns that there has been a steady overall increase in plastic bag use and litter, promising in 2011 to ask questions if retailers did not reverse this trend through voluntary action.

The retailers have not delivered and the evidence from Wales and Ireland makes it clear that a mandatory levy is the way forward.

I therefore hope you will back the Break the Bag Habit campaign and take this opportunity to announce legislative proposals for a “plastax” on every single use carrier bag used in England. 

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas MP Brighton Pavilion

Read the ministerial response here.