29 January 2008, 22:19 PM
  • Retail groups have joined forces to fight a scheme that would prohibit London retailers from providing customers with shopping bags.

The British Retail Consortium(BRC) and Association of Convenience Stores(ACS) are petitioning Parliament in protest at the London Local Authorities (Shopping Bags) Bill, which would ban the distribution of carrier bags to all retail customers.
“This is a gesture to grab a headline,” says Jane Milne, director of business environment at the BRC. “It will do almost nothing for the environment. Carrier bags are not the great environmental evil. They represent a fraction of one percent of waste going to landfill.
“Even so, retailers of all types are already well on the way to meeting a voluntary pledge to achieve a 25% reduction. Do councillors really believe Londoners want their money spent on a new army of bag-ban enforcers bursting into shops, demanding documents and searching for secret supplies of bags shopkeepers ‘held for provision to customers’?”
“London councils are proposing a measure that would severely harm retailers of all kinds, but especially small stores,” adds James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores. “The proposal would ban not only giving bags away free but also making bags available for sale. This is excessive and economically very dangerous. As it stands they have done no analysis of the likely impact of this measure on the retail economy in London.”
The London Councils’ decision follows an online consultation which saw 90% of respondents agree with the idea of outlawing carrier bags.