NFRN produces posters to publicise new 10p charge for plastic bags
With all the Coronavirus news that has saturated the media over the last year, it’s been easy to overlook what else is happening in the world.
Life does go on, even in these trying times, and one such story that we want all our retail, forecourt and independent outlet customers to be aware of is that the new 10p charge for single-use carrier bags is now in effect for small businesses and independent retailers.
Up until now the successful ‘bag tax’, designed to encourage customers to use less single-use bags, has only been applied to large businesses and chain shops, however as of Friday 21st May 2021, this charge is relevant for all businesses and retail establishments, such as newsagents, corner shops and garage forecourts, regardless of size.
The NFRN (National Federation of Retail Newsagents) has welcomed the move, and has worked closely with DEFRA to ensure the charge has been rolled out fairly to cover all their members.
Stuart Reddish, National President of the NFRN, said: “The NFRN welcomes the fact that small businesses are now included in the carrier bag legislation. To help members with this change, the NFRN has designed some posters that can now be downloaded from our website to ensure customers are aware.
“We have lobbied hard for these changes to be rolled out across all small businesses across the whole of the UK, while also pressing DEFRA to ensure the new regulations do not negatively impact our members.
“This charge will allow independent newsagents and convenience stores to ‘give back’ by reducing their usage of single-use plastic. Since the carrier bag charge first came in, sales of single-use plastic bags have dropped dramatically. We would like to see these numbers continue to fall.”
The carrier bag levy posters are available through the Federation of Independent Retailers website, and come in both colour and black and white versions. They feature strong imagery of a sea turtle and a basking shark (both visitors to British waters) about to consume a white single-use carrier bag. The risk to marine life from discarded single-use plastics has been featured heavily in the media, as in the water they can resemble jellyfish, and be mistaken for prey by these endangered creatures.
You can read more about the introduction of the bag levy on the NFRN website, via the links below…
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