Plastic Bag Pollution on UK Beaches Falls 80% After Single-Use Bag Fee Policy, Report Finds

A new report from Marine Conservation Society has determined an 80% decline in the amount of plastic bags found washed up on beaches in the past 10 years. The report links the decline in plastic bag waste to the enacting of fees for single-use plastic bags at large supermarket retailers in 2015.

Marine Conservation Society completes a survey on beach litter every year and has done so for three decades. Last year, its volunteers found 4,684 single-use plastic bags in the UK and Channel Islands. 

As the Centre for Public Impact reported, England first issued a law requiring retailers with 250 or more full-time employees to charge at least 5 pence per each single-use plastic bag. Fees typically range between 5 and 25 pence per bag, The Guardian reported.

“It is brilliant to see policies on single-use plastics such as carrier bag charges working,” Lizzie Price, beachwatch manager at the Marine Conservation Society, said in a press release. “There is no doubt that these policies have been extremely successful in reducing this frequently littered item.”

In 2023, the UK government shared a report that found plastic bag usage at major supermarkets declined by 98% from 2014 to 2023. 

A report from earlier this year found that in the U.S., plastic bag bans have been highly effective, reducing the amount of waste by millions of bags. Bans in just three states and two major cities in the U.S. cut single-use plastic bags by about 6 billion per year. In 2018, a report determined that a plastic bag ban by two major grocery chains in Australia reduced single-use plastic bags by 1.5 billion in just three months of the program.

Although the Marine Conservation Society praised the decline of plastic bags washing up on beaches since the bag fees were initiated, the organization noted that more work is needed to further reduce plastic bag pollution along with other forms of waste. Recent beach surveys from Marine Conservation Society found an increase in drinks-related plastic litter and an overall 1.2% increase in plastic litter across UK beaches, despite the decline in plastic bag litter, The Guardian reported.

In October 2023, the UK enacted a ban on plastic cutlery, polystyrene cups and food containers, balloon sticks, and other single-use plastics. However, as The Conversation reported, the ban did not apply to single-use plastic packaging. 

“Our volunteer surveys show 9 out of 10 beach litter items are made from plastic, and drinks-related litter, like bottles and cans, were found on 97% of UK beaches surveyed last year,” Price said. “We need broader policies that charge or ban more single-use items where possible such as the proposed deposit return schemes for plastic bottles, cans, and glass. We must move quicker towards a society that repairs reuses and recycles.”