Number of Plastic Bags Found on UK Beaches Drops 80% Since Charge Introduced

Celebrating the success of carrier bag legislation, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is urging countries to advance plans for other single-use items. Over the past decade, the number of plastic bags found on UK beaches has plummeted by 80% following the imposition of a mandatory fee on shoppers who choose single-use carrier bags at checkout.

According to the MCS's annual litter survey, volunteers discovered an average of one plastic bag every 100 meters of coastline last year, down from an average of five carrier bags per 100 meters in 2014. The charity, which has monitored beach litter for the last thirty years, credits this decline to the mandatory charges, which range from 5p to 25p for single-use plastic bags.

Lizzie Price, Beachwatch Programme Manager at MCS, remarked, "It is brilliant to see policies on single-use plastics such as carrier bags working."

Large retailers in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England have been required to charge for single-use plastic bags since laws were introduced in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015, respectively. The charge increased from 5p to 10p in 2021 for England and Scotland and is 25p in Northern Ireland. Wales, where the minimum charge remains 5p, plans to ban the bags altogether by 2026.

Price urged the devolved UK governments to advance their policies on charging for, banning, or reducing more single-use items, and to expedite the proposed deposit scheme for plastic bottles, cans, and glass. All four UK nations have been collaborating to agree on a joint approach to the scheme, which has now been delayed until 2027.

"We must move quicker towards a society that repairs, reuses, and recycles," said Price.

The number of plastic bags found along the coastline began to drop significantly across the UK in 2015. In Scotland, the average number found was 11 per 100 meters in 2014, but this dropped to six in 2015, a year after the charge was introduced.

The MCS's 2023 beach litter report, which included 1,199 separate surveys, found that 97% of beaches had drinks-related litter, such as bottles and cans. The survey found 4,684 plastic bags.

The society's beach cleaning effort is a year-round activity, but a third of its data is collected during the Great British Beach Clean events. Last year, thousands of volunteers found that drinks-related litter had increased by 14% in Scotland and 7% in England compared to 2022. Overall, it recorded a 1.2% increase in plastic litter across the UK, with an average of 167 items per 100 meters.

The five most common items found were plastic pieces measuring 2.5-30 cm, packets such as crisp and sandwich wrappers, caps and lids, plastic string and cord, and plastic bottles and containers.

More than 100 litter-picks have been organized for this year's Great British Beach Clean, scheduled to take place from September 20-29 on shores from Bude in Cornwall to Aikerness in the Orkney Islands.