In the week Northern Ireland joined Wales in bringing in charges for plastic carrier bags, campaigners have been heaping pressure on the government to introduce legislation across the rest of the UK.

The Scottish government is currently consulting on plans to phase out single-use carrier bags. Results were due to be published in December, but have been delayed due to the high volume of responses. However, there are no such moves planned in England.

With Westminster seemingly reluctant to tackle the issue, the British Retail Consortium told The Grocer retailers were unlikely to introduce charges across the board voluntarily. This comes despite figures showing bag use has increased in the past few years, following major reductions when retailers first took action in 2006.

Wrap’s latest available figures on plastic bag use in the UK show that in 2011 just under eight billion single-use carrier bags were used in the UK, representing a 34.5% reduction on 2006. However this was 5.4% higher than 2010, a year in which usage had already increased by 5%.

“Retailers are focused on much greater environmental issues such as reducing the impact of a product throughout its whole lifecycle,” said a BRC spokesman, “and have looked to put aside the distraction of plastic bags and bag charging.”

He added that it was not clear shoppers wanted bag charges.

However, environmental campaigners reiterated calls this week for retailers and the coalition government to introduce charges across the board.

“Retailers should absolutely take the lead on this and some already have. Like M&S and B&Q,” said Friends of the Earth resource use campaigner Julian Kirby. “The big shame is that elements of the market are pushing well ahead of the UK government, which is becoming the dirty man of Europe.”

Following the Welsh government’s introduction of a 5p charge in October 2011, bag use in the Welsh food and drink sector has fallen by between 70%-96%.

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