Environmental campaigners have called on the government to learn from its own successes after official figures showed the use of single-use supermarket plastic bags had fallen 98% since retailers in England began charging for them in 2015.

Annual distribution of plastic carrier bags by seven leading grocery chains plummeted from 7.6bn in 2014 to 133m last year, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said on Monday.

  • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    In Canada we just fully banned plastic bags. Walmart just doesn’t offer any bags at self checkout anymore besides the reusable ones. It’s kind of annoying if you forget to bring bags but it’s not a huge deal. If I’m walking I’ll just fill my personal grocery cart, or if I’m driving I’ll just throw everything loose in my car. If I do need a bag I’ll just spend $0.25 on a reusable bag.

    It’s really not a big deal like a lot of people expected

    • donut4ever@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m fully for it. I’m actually used to it at Costco and Aldi. I don’t know why it took wally this long to do the same and they still have stores that still offer free plastic bags.

    • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      If I do need a bag I’ll just spend $0.25 on a reusable bag.

      Which is actually making the central issue - pollution and GHGs - worse than if we just had thin-film single use bags.