Tesco is to stop selling 5p plastic bags and replace them with “bags for life” costing 10p in a move that could boost the retailer’s profits and result in it using more plastic.
Britain’s biggest supermarket chain presented the change, which will apply from August 28 across its 3,500 British stores, as an environmental initiative but admitted later yesterday that it would save costs.
Single-use carrier bags are rapidly disappearing from supermarkets, with Sainsbury’s having removed them in October 2015, Lidl stopping sales last month and Morrisons considering withdrawing them.
Tesco said that rules requiring retailers to charge 5p for single-use bags and give the proceeds to charity prevented it from recovering the cost of producing bags. The chain will recoup this cost from sales of 10p re-usable bags, meaning it will keep about 4p from each sale and donate 4p to good causes, with most of the rest paid in VAT.
The switch to 10p bags, which stores will replace free of charge if damaged, could save Tesco several million pounds a year because it will no longer have to absorb the cost of producing the 700 million single-use bags it sells annually.
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Tesco’s re-usable bags will be almost three times heavier than single-use ones, meaning that the total amount of plastic in the bags will increase, at least in the short term. Tesco said its projections showed that it would be using less plastic overall in bags by “mid 2018” but admitted that it needed at least to halve the number of bags sold at present.
Government rules introduced in England in October 2015 say that retailers are required to charge 5p for single-use bags and are “expected” to donate all proceeds to charity minus “reasonable costs”. The rules add that reasonable costs do not include “existing costs, such as the cost of the bags”.
“Recently a dying whale washed up in Norway with a stomach full of plastic bags
In 2014 more than 7.6 billion single-use plastic bags were given to customers by supermarkets in England. The seven largest retailers sold 83 per cent fewer bags in the year to April 2017 than in January to December 2014, a reduction of six billion bags, or a fall from 140 bags per person per year to 25. The charge was introduced to prevent harm to wildlife and reduce litter.
Tesco carried out a ten-week trial in Aberdeen, Dundee and Norwich selling only 10p re-usable bags and found that the number sold fell by 25 per cent. It said it expected sales to fall further as customers continued to re-use them.
Matt Davies, the Tesco chief executive, described the decision to stop selling single-use bags as “the right thing to do for the environment” and said that it would help customers to use fewer bags. The chain will continue to sell single-use bags to online customers, who buy 128 million bags a year.
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Tesco said that it would not profit from the new 10p bag and would donate the same amount or more per bag sold. It has awarded grants to more than 6,000 community groups nominated by customers, charities and other groups, with more than £33 million invested in projects. Groundwork, an environmental improvement charity, helps to administer the scheme.
A Tesco spokesman said it was not required to donate money from the sale of re-usable bags but had chosen to do so. He added: “Under the 10p [bag] we will recoup the cost of the bag which we can’t do under the 5p.”
Lidl stopped donating to charity from the proceeds of bag sales when it withdrew single-use bags. Sainsbury’s donates the profits from its re-usable bags but recoups the cost of producing them.
Louise Edge, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, welcomed Tesco’s decision. She said: “Recently a dying whale washed up in Norway with a stomach full of plastic bags. Small steps like banning flimsy plastic bags really can make a big difference. It’s high time that all retailers took positive action and stopped selling these bags.”