Addressing the nation in the Queen’s Speech today (4 June), Her Majesty the Queen stated that government will work to ‘reduce the use of plastic carrier bags to help protect the environment’.

In the speech, which sets out the government’s proposed legislative programme for the year ahead, Her Majesty the Queen said: “My government will continue to implement major reforms to the electricity market and reduce the use of plastic carrier bags to help protect the environment.”

Indeed, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced last year that the coalition will introduce a five pence mandatory charge for sing-use plastic bags in October 2015, if it is voted back into power. Unlike similar schemes set up in other parts of the UK, however, (such as Wales’s plastic bag levy that has seen bag use drop by 76 per cent), the UK government outlined it would not include reusable ‘bags for life’ or paper bags, nor would the levy apply to organisations with fewer than 250 employees.

However, government has not yet made a decision as to whether the charge would cover biodegradable bags, or how the exemptions would work.

Revenue should be used to promote recycling

But in documents published alongside the speech today, the government writes: ‘Retailers will be expected to donate the proceeds of the charge to good causes and we are looking into developing a voluntary agreement with retailers to cover this. We will require organisations to publish data to show customers what the proceeds are being used for.’

In light of this, Johnathan Short, founder and Deputy Chairman of plastics recycling firm ECO Plastics, is calling for the revenue produced by the plastic bag charge to be used to create a recycling awareness campaign.

He said: “Revenue from the 5p plastic bag charge should be invested in a public awareness campaign to increase household recycling across the UK for the economic and environmental benefit of local communities. Recycled waste is valuable and communities should be benefiting from it, yet the greatest barrier to effective recycling is still public confusion about what can and cannot be recycled.

“Research shows that people recycle more when they understand what can be recycled, where it goes, what it becomes and how it benefits the local community.

“A crystal clear communications campaign to get this information to every household is essential if we are to drive up recycling rates and meet our national recycling targets.”

He added that the revenue could be used to invest in projects such as Recoup’s ‘Plastics Please’ campaign, which is expected to launch ‘later this year’.

Biodegradable bag charge debate

There are still arguments for and against introducing the bag charge to biodegradable bags as well.

According to the Environmental Audit Committee report into plastic bags (released in February), the proposed [five-pence] charge should ‘apply to all bag types and all retailers’.

The report reads: ‘The government should focus on making the scheme simple and coherent with other policies to reinforce other positive environmental behaviours. It should take steps to set a minimum price for ‘bags for life’ at a level which incentivises their reuse.’

It adds that the proposed exemption for biodegradable bags ‘risks damaging the UK plastics recycling industry, could undermine the reduction in bag use, and is not necessary’. Further, the EAC said that the policy appeared ‘rushed’ and that the decision to exempt biodegradable bags was taken ‘before reviewing existing evidence or considering the concerns of all stakeholders’. ‘It should not proceed’, it concludes.

Indeed, in today’s briefing notes, the government writes: ‘Exemption for biodegradable bags is a challenge to UK industry to produce a genuinely biodegradable bag that meets defined criteria and can be identified and separated in waste recovery and treatment operations. We are not aware that such a plastic bag currently exists.’

However, Andrea Di Stefano of the bioplastics firm Novamont said: “[H]ome compostable bags, which meet the EN13432, AS5810 and the Vincotte OK Home Compost standards, not only break down completely and harmlessly in the natural environment within 40 weeksbut their distribution has shown to dramatically reduce the volume of food waste going to landfill; this saves local government money and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

“We hope that a more intelligent charging regime is adopted, which could create a level playing field between single-use plastic bags and compostable bags. This would give retailers the chance to promote the use of compostable bags as an alternative to traditional plastics.”

Find out more about the proposed plastic bag charge for England or the Queen's Speech 2014.