Carrier bag slump continues

Latest figures from the UK government waste body WRAP reveal that the number of carrier bags being used by shoppers remains dramatically lower than five years ago.

The British Retail Consortium has described the figures as encouraging in the context of rising sales and changing shopping habits.

For the UK as a whole, 40 per cent fewer thin carrier bags were taken by customers in 2010 compared with 2006, when statistics were first collected. A total of 37 per cent fewer bags of all types – including cotton, jute and ‘bags for life’ – were handed out in 2010 than in 2006. Sales volumes rose by eight per cent over the same period.