The number of plastic bags washing up on British beaches has fallen by 80% in a decade since a mandatory charge was imposed on shoppers who choose to collect single-use bags at the checkout.
According to the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) annual litter survey, volunteers found an average of one plastic bag for every 100 metres of coastline surveyed last year, compared to an average of five carrier bags every 100 metres in 2014.
The charity, which has been monitoring beach litter for three decades, said the drop was undoubtedly due to the introduction of mandatory charges, which can range from 5p to 25p, for single-use plastic bags.
Lizzie Price, Beachwatch programme manager at MCS, said: “It’s great to see that policies on single-use plastics such as carrier bags are working.”
High street retailers in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England are required to charge for single-use plastic bags under laws introduced in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. The charge was increased from 5p to 10p in 2021 for England and Scotland and is 25p in Northern Ireland. Wales, where the minimum charge remains at 5p, has said it will ban the bags completely by 2026.
Price urged the UK’s devolved governments to push forward policies to charge for, ban or reduce more single-use items and take steps such as speeding up plans for a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles, cans and glass. The four nations of the UK have been working together to try to agree a common approach to the scheme, which has now been delayed until 2027.
“We need to move faster toward a society that repairs, reuses and recycles,” Price said.
According to the charity, the number of plastic bags found along the UK’s coastline began to fall dramatically in 2015. In Scotland, the average number of plastic bags found was 11 per 100 metres in 2014, but this fell to six in 2015, a year after the tax 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. It found 4,684 plastic bags.
The charity’s beach clean-up runs all year round, but a third of its data is collected at its Great British Beach Clean events. Last year, thousands of volunteers found that drinks litter had increased by 14% in Scotland and 7% in England compared to 2022. Overall, it recorded a 1.2% increase in plastic waste in the UK, with an average of 167 items per 100 metres.
The five most commonly found items were pieces of plastic measuring between 2.5 and 30cm, packaging such as crisp and sandwich wrappers, caps and lids, plastic string and cord, and plastic bottles and containers.
More than 100 litter collections have been organised for this year’s Great British Beach Clean, which will take place from 20 to 29 September on coastlines from Bude in Cornwall to Aikerness in the Orkney Islands.
