From April 2021, citizens in England will probably have to pay 10p for plastic shopping bags. Small retailers - those employing 250 people or fewer - will no longer be exempt, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.
Environment Secretary George Eustice felt that the original 5p charge was a tremendous success along with the banning on plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds in England. However Greenpeace felt that the government must put in further efforts to take this forward. According to the BBC, in 2014, 7.6 billion bags were given away to customers at England's seven largest supermarkets, the equivalent of 140 per member of the population. Between 2017 and 2018 just over a billion bags were sold at major supermarkets across the UK.
