Paying for plastic bags.

02 Apr, 2008

Islanders will have to pay 5p for every supermarket plastic bag they use from 6 May.

The decision was reached at a recent meeting of supermarket bosses and the environment ministers of Jersey and Guernsey, Senator Freddie Cohen and David de Lisle.

The meeting was called after Nick Steele, managing director of Marks and Spencer in Jersey, and Jim Hopley, the chief executive of the Co-op in the Channel Islands, asked for States intervention to help them make further reductions in plastic bag use.

From 6 May, customers who buy food at Marks and Spencer, Safeway, Checkers and the Co-Op will have to pay for every plastic bag they use.

Senator Cohen said that all the money raised from the initiative, which takes effect on the same day that Marks and Spencer implements the changes, would go to environmental charities, or charities of the supermarkets