Swedish furniture giant Ikea is to introduce a charge on the plastics bags it previously gave free-of-charge in a move to cut waste. A 5p (7 Euro cents) charge will be levied on each bag in a programme which also involves switching to biodegradable bags and cutting the cost of reusable bags.
Last year, Ikea gave away 32 million bags at its stores and has demonstrated a 90% cut in bag consumption when it tested charging for bags at its Edinburgh store in a two year trial. The company expects to reduce its overall offtake of bags by 20 million, according to the BBC.
“The UK is addicted to plastic bags and we are paying a high price for this in environmental terms,” news reports quoted the firm’s environmental manager Charlie Brown as saying.
The company will donate the proceeds from the bag charge to environmental group Community Forests.
