Northern Ireland has extended its five-pence (p) carrier bag levy to include all new ‘cheap’ carrier bags, including reusable ones.

Since Monday (19 January), all retailers in Northern Ireland have been required to charge 5p for all new carrier bags with a retail price of less than 20p, including reusable ones, to encourage shoppers to reuse all types of bags and help protect the environment by ‘reducing carbon emissions and air and water pollution associated with unnecessary carrier bag production, transportation and disposal’.

The charge excludes bags needed on the grounds of hygiene and food safety, the protection of both goods and consumers and confidentiality in respect of prescription medicines.

Part of the Carrier Bags Bill, the charge covers all ‘low-cost’ carrier bags regardless of material composition (be it plastic, paper, or plant-based). It builds on the Single Use Carrier Bags Charge Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013, which were first introduced in April 2013 and related to single-use bags only.

The extended levy has been brought into effect following evidence that, despite the number of single-use carrier bags falling by 71.8 per cent, the number of reusable carrier bags issued has ‘significantly’ increased. As such, the Northern Ireland Assembly brought in the levy to prevent lower cost reusable bags becoming a replacement for single-use bags.

Extended levy will ‘further reduce waste’

Environment Minister Mark H Durkan stated: “We have an existing 5p levy on single use bags to prevent waste. That’s working. However, the evidence shows that sales of cheap reusable bags have increased significantly. So we need to put a levy on them as well in order to further reduce waste. That is what I am doing from 19 January. A 5p levy will go on any bags priced less than 20p.”

According to figures from Northern Ireland’s Department of the Environment (DOE NI), the first year of the single-use bag levy generated net proceeds of £4.17 million.

Around £1.3 million of this was recently allocated to more than 145 local communities and organisations through the Challenge Fund, which seeks to ‘deliver community environmental projects to support wellbeing and prosperity’.

It resulted in:

• over 130,00 trees being planted;
• over 45,000 students taught;
• over 8,000 volunteers involved;
• nearly 1,000 events organised;
• 40 built heritage sites managed; and
• nearly 10 kilometres of hedgerows planted.

A further £1.1 million was allocated to the Natural Heritage Grant, Sustainability Innovation Fund and Local Clean-up Support.

Speaking of the projects funded, Durkan said: “These innovative and exciting projects span a range of themes, from improving access to local heritage sites, transforming local wasteland, protection of wood and bog lands to helping schools improve their outdoor environmental teaching resources… I applaud all the hard working schools, voluntary and community groups who make a positive difference to preserving and enriching their diverse heritage and environment for this and future generations."

Wales was the first UK government to introduce charges for carrier bags, bringing its levy into effect in October 2011. The government of Northern Ireland followed suit with its own levy in April 2013, and Scotland introduced its charge in October 2014.

England will begin charging for some carrier bags in October of this year, however the scheme has been labelled as a ‘complete mess’ by some quarters, after government revealed that the charge would not include reusable ‘bags for life’, biodegradable bags, or paper bags, nor would the levy apply to organisations with fewer than 250 employees.

Find out more about the carrier bag levy in Northern Ireland.