Government announces extension of single-use carrier bag charge

Article summary

The government has announced that the single-use carrier bag charge will be extended to all retailers in England and will increase to 10p from April 2021 to further protect the oceans from plastic waste. The charge was introduced in 2015 and since then, the government has prevented billions of plastic bags being sold and ending up in the ocean. The Environment Secretary, George Eustice said: 'The UK is already a world-leader in this global effort, and our carrier bag charge has been hugely successful in taking billions of harmful plastic bags out of circulation. But we want to go further by extending this to all retailers so we can continue to cut unnecessary waste and build back greener.'