Supermarket chain Tesco is asking its customers to choose the charities and environmental organisations that should receive the money raised from its carrier bag charges in Scotland and Wales.

The charges, which apply to single-use carrier bags, were introduced by the Welsh Government on 1 October 2011 and will be implemented in Scotland in October this year as part of moves to reduce the impact of plastic packaging on the environment. (Northern Ireland introduced its single-use bag levy on 8 April 2013 and the English government is set to introduce one in ‘autumn 2015’.)

Tesco has estimated that it will raise £1.8 million from the charges placed on single-use plastic bags in its stores in Scotland and Wales in 2014/15 and is now asking customers to vote for which two organisations should receive the money.

The voting process, which runs until 22 August, asks the public to choose whether the estimated £1 million from the Scottish levy should go to food waste campaigners Love Food Hate Waste, anti-litter campaigners Keep Scotland Beautiful, or environmental charity Groundwork UK, and whether anti-litter campaigners Keep Wales Tidy or Groundwork UK should receive the estimated £800,000 raised from the Welsh bag charge.

These five organisations were shortlisted by Tesco after it received applications from 120 organisations in June.

The selected organisations will receive all monies raised from sales of plastic bags in Tesco stores for an initial period of 12 months, running from 1 October 2014 to 30 September 2015.

‘Down to customers to decide who the winners will be’

Speaking of the vote, Greg Sage, Community Director for Tesco said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for organisations to partner with us and make a real difference to the communities they serve. Our customers are the ones who will pay the charge, so we really wanted them to choose the partners that will benefit from the money.

“We received a huge number of very strong applications from different organiations to be our new partners, and it was a tough job whittling the applications down to just five. It’s now down to our customers to decide who the winners will be.”

Iain Gulland, Director of Zero Waste Scotland, which delivers the Scottish Government’s Zero Waste Plan, welcomed the decision, saying: “It’s great that Tesco has launched this public vote to select which good causes benefit from the proceeds of its carrier bag sales in Scotland. It’s a great example of a major retailer using the requirement to charge a minimum of five pence for a single-use carrier bag, which comes into force in October, to help support good causes.”

He added: “Zero Waste Scotland is working with all retailers in Scotland to help them understand the forthcoming charge, which is an important and proven measure to help reduce the number of single-use bags handed out. We’d like to see as many retailers as possible taking the opportunity to support good causes with the proceeds from carrier bag sales in the future, by signing up to our Carrier Bag Commitment.”

The winning organisations will be in the week commencing 25th August.