National Trust introduce 5p bag fee

The National Trust last week introduced a 5p charge for plastic carrier bags in all of its shops.

This makes them the latest in a series of companies and organisations - including Marks and Spencer, and Help the Aged - to ban free plastic bags.

The banning trend started because of a Daily Mail campaign against the plastic bag ‘blight’.

The campaign led to a government announcement promising to impose plastic bag taxes if retailers failed to start self-legislating.

Around 13 billion bags are given away to UK shoppers every year; each bag can take up to 1,000 years to break down in landfill.

The 5p charge came into effect on Thursday last week in all 220 of the National Trust’s shops in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The shops will be selling reusable jute bags at the reduced price of £1.50 until 2nd July to encourage shoppers to switch to sustainable habits.

Revenue raised from the fee will be invested into conservation work and research into the impacts of climate change.