The Scottish Government are currently consulting on: SAFEGUARDING SCOTLAND'S RESOURCES - A PROGRAMME FOR THE EFFICIENT USE OF OUR MATERIALS.
According to their proposal the Government would like to do the following:
Purpose
We propose to reduce the number of carrier bags used in Scotland by legislating to require retailers to charge for bags; with a voluntary agreement that net proceeds (estimated at £5-6m per annum based on an 80% drop in bag usage) will be donated to charitable causes, a proportion of which will be for waste and litter prevention.
We want to establish a robust system which leads to much greater reuse of bags while keeping administrative burdens to a minimum.
Main Proposals
We are therefore proposing a system consistent with that in place in Wales, to allow us to learn lessons from their implementation and to ease the administrative burdens on UK-wide retailers.
Proceeds to Good Causes
The legislation that allows for charging also allows for the Scottish Ministers to direct net proceeds (i.e. profit after administrative costs have been deducted, estimated at £5-6m if an 80% drop is achieved) to be used for „environmental protection or improvement or to any other purposes that may be reasonably regarded as analogous‟. However, we are aware that some retailers already charge for carrier bags and donate profits to various charitable causes. Rather than interfere with this practise, which has obvious benefits, we would like to reach a voluntary agreement with retailers that they donate net proceeds to good causes, some which should include litter prevention, waste prevention and recycling.
You can access the full text here!
Recycle Now have a useful page with recycling information for plastic bags. You can access it here!
