More UK Retailers Jump On The 'Banish The (Plastic) Bag' Campaign

On March 4 and 5 we wrote here about the London Daily Mail newspaper's "Banish The Bags" campaign, which is designed to get retailers in the United Kingdom to come up with ways to dramatically reduce, if not eliminate, the use of single-use plastic carrier bags in their stores.

The anti single-use plastic carrier bags' campaign also is designed to encourage shoppers to bring their own "bags for life" to the store with them each time they go shopping. ("bags for life" are reuseable shopping bags.

Just a couple days after the Daily Mail began its anti-plastic bag campaign, with front page headlines, stories and graphics in its February 28 edition, UK grocery and hard/soft goods retailer Marks & Spencer announced it would start charging shoppers a per-plastic bag fee of about 10 cents U.S. if its customers want their purchases packed in a plastic carrier bag rather than in a paper or reusable tote bag.

As we reported here, just a week after the "Banish The Bags" campaign began, Britain's Debenhams' department store chain joined Marks & Spencer as the second major retail chain to announce it would start charging for the thin plastic shopping bags. Debenhams, which has about 320 stores in the UK, said it will soon begin a trail program, charging the equivalent of about 10 cents U.S. per plastic carrier bag, if shoppers' choose them over other options.

Now, less than two weeks after the "Banish The Bags" campaign began, a number of additional UK retailers are announcing various steps they plan on taking to reduce the number of single use plastic carrier bags they give away for free in their stores:

>UK High Street department store chain Woolworths says it will begin a trial in which the retailer will charge 1-pence per-bag fee for the plastic carrier bags. If the trail is a success (read, not too many shopper complaints), the company says it will rollout the scheme to all its stores. Woolies has 820 stores in the UK. The goal of the trail is to get shoppers to use reusable bags, the retailer says. The chain says it gives out about 220 million plastic shopping bags a year.

>B&Q, a general merchandise retailer, said a trial it has conducted in its stores in Scotland and North East, in which it charged 5-p (about 10 cents U.S.) in some of its stores, has resulted in an 88% reduction in the amount of plastic carrier bags those stores used during the trail period. It's expected B&Q will implement the per-bag fee in all its stores soon.

>Specialty retailer Help the Aged announced it will stop using plastic carrier bags in all of its shops in June.

>Oxfam, the non-profit group which operates retail shops in the UK, has also announced it will phase out using plastic shopping bags in all of its stores.

Additionally, two of the UK's 'big four" supermarket chains--Sainsbury's and Asda--have announced initial measures they say will reduce the amount of single-use plastic carrier bags their stores use to pack customers grocery purchases. (Tesco and Morrisons are the other two "big four" members.)

Sainsbury's, the UK's number two grocery market share leader, after number one Tesco, says beginning on March 24 it will instruct all store staffers to ask each shopper if they have brought back a bag from home they want to use before packing their groceries in a plastic grocery bag. The store clerks' also will tell each customer the stores' sell reusable bags, and ask them if they would like to purchase one or more and have their groceries packed in them rather than in a plastic bag.

Sainsbury's says last year it gave out for free 15 million "bags for life," which are reusable shopping tote bags. The retailer says it plans to continue giving out free reusable bags on a periodic basis to customers.

Our UK industry sources tell us they expect Sainsbury's to take further measures to reduce plastic bag use in its stores, since they agreed in February on a plan to reduce the number of single-use plastic carrier bags the chain uses by 25% by the end of 2008. Last year, Sainsbury's handed out 1.78 billion plastic carrier bags, which is the equivalent to about 68 for every household in Britain. (All of the "big four" UK supermarket chains voluntarily agreed on this 25% reduction.)

Asda, the number-three supermarket chain in the UK, announced it will remove its free plastic bag dispensers from its checkouts, where they currently are located, and put them behind the counter. Additionally, the chain, which is owned by U.S.-based Wal-Mart, Inc, says it will instruct its store-level employees to only use plastic bags if a shopper requests one. If one isn't requested, the store clerk is to use a paper bag, or if the shopper has one or buys one in the store, a reusable shopping tote.

The Co-op, another leading food retailer in the UK, has began a six week trial in which it is using a new type of home-compostable carrier bag as a way to cut down on the number of free plastic carrier bags it gives out in its stores. The bags can be tossed in a home compost pile. The bags biodegrade at a fairly rapid rate. The Co-op says it's goal is to stop using single-use plastic carrier bags in its stores completely.

Tesco, the UK's leading retailer (and the world's number-three retailer) with a 34% market share, hasn't made any changes regarding its single-use plastic carrier bag policy to date since the plastic bag banishment campaign started on February 27. The retailer, parent company to Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market in the U.S., announced shortly after the "Banish the Bags" campaign began, that it has no plans to either institute a per-bag fee or to eliminate the plastic shopping bags in its United Kingdom stores.

The UK's other leading grocery chains--Morrisons, Somerfield and Waitrose--haven't made any minor (like Sainsbury's and Asda) or major announcements to date in the wake of the "Banish the Bags" campaign. Our sources tell us to look for some type of an announcement from Waitrose in the next week.

It is estimated by goverment sources that British retailers give out about 13 billion free single-use plastic carrier bags each year. It's further estimated that on average each bag is used for 20 minutes, and then dumped in the trash.

It takes the plastic carrier bags years to biodegrade in a landfill, and of course many never make it to the landfill. The bags can be recycled. However, the infrastructure to do so is poor--and consumer plastic bag recycling behavior is even worse.

Britain's 'Banish The (Plastic) Bag' Campaign and Tesco: London Street Artist 'Celebrates' the Tesco Plastic Bag; More UK Retailers to Charge Bag Fee

Yesterday, we wrote here about how the London Daily Mail newspaper's campaign to "Banish The (Plastic) Bag," started on February 27, is sweeping across the United Kingdom. In just the one-week since the campaign to banish single-use plastic carrier bags was started by the Daily Mail, British politicians, environmental groups, citizens and retailers have jumped on the anti-plastic shopping bag bandwagon.

Popular UK grocery and hard-soft goods retailer Marks & Spencer was the first merchant to announce it would begin charging shoppers the equivalent of about 10 cents per-bag U.S. if they wanted their purchases packed in a single-use plastic carrier bag.

Today, the British department store chain Debenhams said it is working on a scheme to charge for single-use plastic shopping bags, along with offering reusable tote bags in all of its 140 stores, beginning with a trial soon in some of its shops.

Another development occurred today in the UK's Channel Islands, where supermarkets including Safeway, Marks & Spencer, and Checkers will soon begin charging customers about 5 cents U.S. per plastic carrier bag. Tesco doesn't have a store on the Islands.

Speaking of Tesco, as we wrote yesterday, the UK's biggest retailer is square in the line of fire in the "Banish The Bag" campaign, as it announced last week it has no plans to either charge shoppers for the single-use plastic carrier bags or eliminate their use in its stores.

Tesco gives shoppers who bring their own reusable shopping bags to its stores points on their Tesco Club Cards, which are good for discounts and other store specials. The retailer said it believes this is an option which encourages consumers to bring their own bags, and reduces plastic bag use, while still preserving shopper choice.

The Daily Mirror, environmental groups, some politicos and numerous citizens have been heavily critical of Tesco for not doing more as the largest retail user of the single-use plastic carrier bags in the nation. Tesco is the UK retail grocery market share leader, with 34% of total retail sales.

The Tesco Plastic Bag Flag

Now, a street artist has done his or her part to back the "Banish The Bag" campaign, while hoisting Tesco plc. on its own plastic bag petard it appears. A few days ago, a large painting appeared on the side of a chemist shop in Islington, in north London. The painting shows two children, with their hands on their hearts, pledging allegiance as a third child hoists a waving Tesco plastic bag up the flag pole. [See the picture of the art work at the top of this story.]

The painting is unsigned. However, the word on the north London street is that it's the work of the famed London street artist Banksy, who has sold similar pieces of his work for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Tesco says its position on banishing plastic bags remains the same today as it did yesterday, according to a company spokesman: the retailer says it has no plans to either charge shoppers a per-bag fee or to eliminate single-use plastic carrier bags in its stores.

In our piece yesterday, we said we think Tesco will change, and modify, its position on the issue sooner rather than later. If life imitates art, we think that modification will come fairly soon. Further, we hear from our grocery industry correspondents in London, that Waitrose and Sainsbury's, may be making announcements, which could include a per-plastic bag fee similar to the one announced by Marks & Spencer last week.

Here's a rundown on where the major UK grocery chains stand vis-a-vis single-use plastic carrier bags. The retailers are listed in order of their market share position.

1. Tesco: Says won't charge for or eliminate plastic grocery bags


2. Asda: Still using plastic bags. Says considering charging; other options.


3. Sainsbury's: Still using plastic bags. Says considering charging; other options


4. Morrison's: Says is evaluating the options.


5. Co-op: Doesn't offer single use plastic carrier bags in its stores. Supports a ban.


6. Marks & Spencer: Plans on charging for plastic bags.


7. Waitrose: Still using plastic bags. Says considering charging; other options.

All seven of the grocery chains above sell a variety of reusable shopping bags in their stores, ranging for inexpensive carrier bags made out of a synthetic material, to low price -to- higher-priced cotton canvas shopping totes. All of these above retailers who offer plastic bags in their stores also offer some sort of Club Card bonus point system or a "cents off" per bag discount for each reusable shopping tote bag shoppers' use in lieu of accepting a plastic bag for their groceries.

Retailers throughout the world need to create a policy

Tesco is far from the only major international retailer that is going to see itself in the middle of the plastic carrier bag issue; it's just the major target right now in the UK because of the position it took on the issue, and because the issue is front and center in the nation.

U.S-based Wal-Mart, the world's number one retailer, and France's Carrefour, the second-biggest global retailer, shouldn't take glee in Tesco's situation at home. The non-democratic government of China's decision to completely ban the use of thin plastic bags at retail stores in the nation is going to spur other countries throughout the world to follow suit, although many of them already were even before enacted it's new law.

What big, international retailers like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Tesco and others are already beginning to find, but will soon start finding regularly, is that there will be a patchwork quilt of laws and ordinances throughout the world regarding if and how the retailer's can offer plastic shopping bags in their stores.

In some places, like China, parts of Africa, parts of Canada and Australia, the bags are already banned. In other places, like Ireland and possibly India, the single-use carrier bags will be taxed. And, in the United States, the retailers' will be required to place recycling bins in stores in some states--like California, New York and New Jersey--but will also find city-by-city bans, such as those already in place in San Francisco. There are at least 40 cities in the U.S. currently debating plastic grocery bag bans for their communities.

We think international retailers like Tesco, Wal-Mart and Carrefour--and others like the "big three" supermarket chains in the U.S.--Kroger Co., SuperValu, Inc. and Safeway Stores, Inc.--would be smart to get their ducks in a row and create and announce their own single-use plastic carrier bag policies--be they a per-bag fee, elimination of the bags' in their stores, or some other scheme. If not, the state and local legislators will define that policy for them by creating a law--which is happening with increasing frequency.

We predict when Whole Foods Market, Inc, eliminates the use of the plastic carrier bags in all its U.S. stores next month on Earth Day, April 22, the "Banish the Bag" campaign will begin across the pond here in the U.S.

We aren't saying a major U.S. daily will launch a campaign similar to what the Daily Mail has done in the UK--although they might think about doing so as most U.S. newspapers need as many readers as they can find--rather, we believe the Whole Foods Market self-ban will serve as a symbolic and real signal in the U.S., which will elevate the issue even higher than it currently is.

Message From Across the Pond: Tesco is Right Square in the Middle of the 'Banish the (Plastic) Bags' Campaign in the United Kingdom

Britain's London Daily Mail newspaper launched its "Banish The Bags" campaign, designed to eliminate the offering of single-use plastic grocery or shopping bags by retailers in the United Kingdom on February 27.

In the seven days since the daily newspaper launched the campaign, the UK movement to get retailers to stop giving away and using plastic carrier bags has picked up a full head of steam.

The very day after the kick-off by the Daily Mail of its "Banish The Bags" campaign in its February 27 edition of the paper, UK grocery, hard goods and soft goods retailer Marks & Spencer announced it would begin charging customers the equivalent of about 10 cents U.S. per plastic bag in all 600 of its stores in the UK.

Marks & Spencer says it believes charging for the plastic shopping bags will result in about a 70% reduction in their use in its stores. There is precedent for this dramatic reduction in plastic carrier bag use as a result of charging shoppers a per-bag to have their goods packaged in the bags: Ireland put a tax or fee nationwide on plastic carrier bags over a year ago, and the government reports a near 90% reduction in the number of plastic shopping bags being used in the country.

The Daily Mail's campaign also is winning major support from politicians, environmental groups, some businesses and many consumers. Just yesterday, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the nation's grocers and other retailers he would give them one-year to solve the plastic carrier bag problem in the UK on their own. If not, he said he will push-through legislation which will most likley be in the form of a complete ban on the use of the bags by all retailers. British Parliment already is debating a bill written by local officials in London to ban the plastic bags in that city.

The Daily Mail, its readers, various groups and numerous politicians are putting the pressure on the nation's grocery (and other) retailers to either adopt a per-bag fee scheme like Marks & Spencer has or to eliminate plastic grocery bags all together from their stores.

Three of the UK's "big four" supermarket chains--Sainsbury's, Asda (owned by Wal-Mart) and Morrison's--have come out and said they are considering a Marks & Spencer like fee scheme for their stores if customers want their goods packed in single-use plastic bags.

The Co-op chain, another major food retailer in the UK, stopped using single-use plastic carrier bags in its stores some time ago. And, ironically, USA-based Whole Foods Market, Inc. announced a month ago--before the campaign--that it would eliminate plastic grocery bags in all of its stores in the U.S., Canada and the UK. starting on April 22. Whole Foods' currently has just one store in the UK, in London. However, the natural foods grocer is looking to open additional stores in the nation.

The UK's leading upscale grocer, Waitrose, also has said it is considering--and will likley implement--some sort of per-bag fee for those customers who want their goods packed in a single-use plastic carrier bag.

The two Germany-based, small-format discount grocery chains in the UK, Aldi and Lidl already charge for plastic bags. In fact, doing so has been a part of the no-frills grocery chains policies for sometime. Aldi has 900 stores in the U.S., and charges a per-bag fee for plastic bags in America as well. Both grocery chains also charge for plastic grocery bags at home in Germany.

The only member of the UK's "big four" supermarket chains to came out against the idea completely, is the nation's number one retailer, Tesco plc. Tesco plc. CEO Sir Terry Leahy said the mega-chain believes customers have the right to choose what type of carrier bag they want their groceries and other goods packaged in, and said Tesco has no plans to either charge shoppers a per-bag fee, or to stop using the plastic bags in its stores.

Tesco gives shoppers points on their Tesco Clubcard, which are redeemable for discounts and other store specials, if they bring their own reusable shopping bags instead of taking a paper or plastic bag from the store. The retailer says it prefers this scheme to either charging shoppers for the bags or eliminating the use of them completely in its stores.

Tesco's position on the issue has set off a firestorm among the UK Press, consumer advocates, politicos, environmental groups and consumers. The London Daily Mail is using its pages to praise Marks & Spencer and vilify Tesco as the anti-green monopolist retailer.

In today's edition of The Evening Standard, the newspaper published full-color photos from various locations near Tesco stores in the UK, showing property litered with single-use plastic carrier bags. The paper dispatched its photographers all over the countryside to find areas near Tesco supermarkets that were strewn with plastic grocery bag debris--and find them they did indeed.[View the pictures and read the piece here.]

The Evening Standard also published its own research called "Tesco (plastic) Bags By The Numbers." According to the paper, Tesco gives out 3 billion single-use plastic carrier bags each year. the Evening Standard says 3 billion plastic grocery bags would stretch a distance of 750,000 miles if laid end-to-end.

Further, In the article here the newspaper offers a number of other remarkable statistics regarding the 3 billion plastic bags the UK's number one retailer, with a 34% share of the nation's retail grocery market, gives out annually. Key among those statistics is that only one in 200 of the plastic bags are recycled, which means the other 199 out of the 200 end up as litter or in landfills.

The movement to legislate, tax (or charge a fee) or outright ban the use of single-use plastic carrier bags in a worldwide one. At the end of 2007, China announced it would completely ban the use of the bags by all retail stores in the nation. A number of countries in Africa have done the same.

In the United States, the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, California have banned grocery retailers which have stores over 10,000 square feet from giving shoppers plastic grocery bags, even if the shoppers want them and are willing to pay for the bags. And, as we mentioned above, Whole Foods Market, Inc will no longer give shoppers plastic grocery bags After Earth Day, 2008, which is April 22. Further, Trader Joe's , the popular U.S. specialty grocer, uses only paper grocery bags in 90% of its stores.

Dozens of cities and states in the U.S. currently have legislation pending to legislate or ban single-use plastic carrier bags. The per-bag tax scheme doesn't have much if any currancy in the states. Rather, what we are seeing is that on the state government level, legislators are tending to pass recycling-type lws, while on the municiple or city level outright bans are the order of the day.

In France, the nations two largest supermarket chains, Carrefour and Auchan, have voluntarily stopped using single-use plastic carrier bags in their stores throughout the country. And, of course, Ireland's successful nationwide tax on plastic carrier bags has made them go from the majority-used grocery bag, to the minority one, with a near 90% reduction in the number of bags circulating in the country.

Tesco looks to not only be fighting a lone battle in the UK, as the nationwide frenzy to ban single-use carrier bags heats up in large part because of the daily media attention devoted to the isssue by the Daily Mail's "Banish The Bags" campaign, but also do to the simple fact that its an international issue.

Tesco's USA Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market offers customers their choice of paper or plastic grocery bags, as do most grocery retailer's in the country. The stores also sell reusable shopping bags. However, as mentioned earlier, Trader Joe's offers only paper bags (and sells reusable bags) in nearly all of its U.S. stores. And Whole Foods Market, Inc., which is a major trendsetter in U.S. food retailing, will no offer the plastic bags after April 22. Numerous other retailers are considering eliminating single-use plastic bags in their stores as well.

Least Tesco thinks it isn't going to face the very same issue it is facing in the UK in the U.S. with Fresh & Easy, the retailer is dead wrong. The issue is heating up across the pond in America.

Last year, the California State Legislature passed a bill that requires all large supermarkets to place plastic carrier bag recycling bins in their stores, and to offer reusable shopping bags for sale in every store. The California Grocers' Association, the industry's state trade group, helped write the legislation, as the group saw outright bans like San Francisco's and Oakland's coming and hopes to head them off in other California cities with this new law.

Cities in the U.S. are allowed to pass their own laws (home rule) even if a state law like the one involving the plastic bags exists. There are at least 40 cities in California right now debating plastic grocery bag bans for their cities.

New York and New Jersey passed a recycling law like California's this year as well. However, the movement in the U.S. is toward outright bans, led by local governments. Cties across the country--big and small, urban and rural--are considering plastic carrier bag bans.

Meanwhile, back home in the UK, Tesco, parent company of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, finds itself isolated--perhaps happily--as the only one of the "big four" that has publicly proclaimed it has no plans to either levy a per-bag fee on plastic carrier bags or stop offering them completely in its stores.

We bet Tesco changes its mind on the issue very soon.

Additional Resources:

>Read the London Daily Mail's "Banish The Bag" kickoff story here.

>You can read additional articles about the UK "Banish The (plastic) Bag" campaign here