Supermarkets gave away more than 8.5bn carrier bags last year but from this week shoppers will have to pay 5p for one. Nigel Burton reports

BLOWING across windswept wastelands, choking our hedgerows, fluttering uselessly in tree branches and floating in rivers and streams – the curse of the disposable plastic bag knows no bounds.

Last year we happily carried our supermarket shopping home in more than 8.5 billion of them - nearly 150 bags for every one of us. And that’s only supermarket carrier bags; when you factor in the carriers given away by high street retailers and fast food outlets the true figure is much higher.

According to the British Retail Consortium, changing shopping habits – more frequent mid-week visits to convenience stores as a way of topping up a weekend food shop – have been responsible for an explosion in so-called ‘disposable’ carrier bags in England.

The number of bags given away in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland has fallen significantly following the introduction of a modest charge. The Welsh led the way in 2011 with a 5p charge for each bag and, since then, there has been a 71 per cent fall. Northern Ireland introduced a similar scheme in 2013 and has seen an 81 per cent reduction in plastic bag use. Scotland signed up last October and reports a similar fall in demand.

This week it is England’s turn. Anyone who shops at a retailer employing more than 250 staff nationwide will have to pay 5p for a bag to carry their goods home.

Naturally, there are some common sense exemptions. You won’t, for instance, have to pay for a plastic bag for a goldfish (try taking home a new pet without one) and uncooked meat can still be wrapped in a bag for hygiene reasons.

So what else do you need to know to avoid carrier bag confusion?

What’s happening? The law now requires supermarkets and large retailers to levy a minimum 5p charge for every single-use carrier bag they give out.

Why is this happening? Councils currently spend £10m a year cleaning up plastic carrier bags every year and one swift look at the nation’s roadsides tells you that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Where will the money go? The leading supermarkets have promised to donate the proceeds to charity. The Government reckons the charge will raise more than £700m for good causes over the next ten years and save £60m in clean-up costs.

So everyone’s a winner? Not quite. Civil servants, it seems, can’t do anything in a straightforward fashion. The charge only applies to single-use plastic bags of 70 microns or less and only to retailers that employ 250 or more full-time staff. Then there are the exemptions – all 1,600 words of them for anyone who cares to read the fine print on the regulations.

What’s exempt? As well as the aforementioned goldfish and meat, you can also score a free bag for bulbs, seeds, flowers, uncooked fish, knives, loose fruit and vegetables, fish ‘n’ chips and prescription medicines. Paper bags also dodge the charge and smaller retailers can opt out of the scheme altogether.

That’s confusing isn’t it? Martin Kersh, Executive Director of the Foodservice Packaging Association, thinks so. Yesterday he warned of carrier confusion at takeaways and the dangers of placing ready-to-eat food in old bags previously used for raw meat.

"We suspect many consumers may not realise they must separate bags used for raw food from those used for ready to eat food and we believe the Food Standards Association should issue really clear advice to the take-way sector that under no circumstances should ready to consume take-away food items be placed in a bag brought to the store by the consumer.

"It is not fair to expect takeaway restaurant staff to ascertain how a bag brought into their store has been previously used. Therefore an unused bag should always be used to avoid any possibility of risk. For this reason alone the principle should be established that there should be no charge for bags used to convey ready to eat takeaway food.”

The Green Party is more succinct. It says: “This 'dogs dinner' policy will mean more headaches and administrative confusion for small businesses.”

So will it work? The Government certainly seems to think so. It says the 5p charge is largely psychological – a method of making consumers think twice before they use a carrier bag – but campaign groups hope a larger shopping bill will help us break our bad habits.

As the Green Party says: ““Seven years after England had the power to charge for single use carrier bags and tens of billions of plastic bags later, it is with relief that the Government has finally brought in this desperately needed and overdue charge that all the evidence shows will drastically reduce their use and the environmental mayhem they cause.”