Shoppers have to pay for plastic bags in supermarkets (Image: Getty)
Shoppers thinking they are helping charities by buying plastic bags in supermarkets may be mistaken, can reveal.
Supermarkets started charging 5p for what is described as ‘single-use bags’ just over nine years ago as part of a government plan to get people to reduce the amount of plastic they threw away.
The charge went up to 10p in May 2021. Back then ’s government stated: “We expect retailers to give the proceeds of the scheme to good causes, but it is for them to choose what to do, and which causes to support.
“We ask retailers to report to us each year about what they do with the money from the charge.”
Nowadays, by mostly stopping selling what is deemed to be ‘single-use bags’, the majority of supermarkets are charging shoppers far more than 10p to take their shopping home in a bag.
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We asked the UK’s major supermarkets what they do with money from plastic bag sales (Image: Getty)
And they don’t have to give any money from the sale of the pricier ‘bags for life’ to good causes.
Several of the retailers asked were vague when asked what they do with the money from the sale of the bags they sell.
said charging 30p for a reusable plastic bag or a paper one is “in line with other retailers”.
In response to our question about where the money from the sale of bags is spent, a spokesperson said: “Iceland continues to meet all of our statutory requirements under government legislation.”
Asda says its bags for life are built to last (Image: Getty Images)
Spar told us that its plastic bags are 20p each and that the money from the bags is funnelled back into the local community by company-owned stores.
But its spokesperson said the independent stores have the option whether to give to charity or keep it.
said its bags for life cost 40p.
An Asda spokesperson said: “Our bags for life are designed for customers to reuse them multiple times when shopping, helping them to save more and to cut down on plastic usage.
“These bags are built to last – but where bags are damaged, we continue to uphold our promise to replace any bag for life free of charge if customers return them to us.”
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Shoppers have had to pay for carrier bags since 2015 (Image: Getty)
They did not say what they spend the money on from the sale of the bags.
plastic bags start at 30p with options including a compostable carrier bag and an eco-loop carrier bag, which is made from in-store plastic waste.
All funds raised by the sale of the compostable carrier bags go towards charity initiatives.
compostable carrier bags cost 10p and it says 100 percent of profits from sales are donated to good causes.
Unlike other stores, which mostly sell bags for life, it stopped producing bags for life in April 2021.
It says it did this because these bags have a large carbon footprint and, following the carrier bag charge, research showed that sales of these bags increased and were being treated as ‘single-use’.
says its bags for life start at 30p per bag with a proportion of proceeds reinvested into new initiatives to reduce plastic packaging and help tackle plastic waste.
bags for life are also 30p. A spokesperson said all profits from bag sales are used to support organisations in the communities it serves and sources goods from, including Comic Relief and the British Red Cross.
says it does not sell ‘single-use bags’ and its bags for life start from 30p.
It says it doesn’t directly link the donations it makes to charities to bag sales because these can fluctuate, and it hopes that over time the number of bags sold will decline.
But it did say that a recent Charities Aid Foundation report found that Tesco donated the highest percentage of its pre-tax profits of any company in the FTSE100.
Marks and Spencer and Waitrose did not respond to our request for information.