UK Edition
Tesco named as supermarket selling the most 5p carrier bags
Tesco has been named as the supermarket whose customers have used the most 5p single-use carriers over the past year.
According to statistics published by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs yesterday, over 637 million bags were used by Tesco customers over 12 months.
This compares to 165 million bags used at Asda, and 51 million bags used by Sainsbury's.
Tesco's share of the grocery market is around twice the size of Asda and Sainsbury's, however it sold around five times the bags used by Asda customers, and 12 times those used at Sainsbury's stores.
Since rules came into force in England in October 2015 forcing retailers to charge 5p for single use bags the total number of carrier bags used at the UK's biggest retailers has fallen dramatically.
Before the policy was introduced the UK's seven biggest retailers (Asda, Marks and Spencer’s, Sainsbury's, Tesco, The Co-operative Group, Waitrose and Morrisons) provided customers with around seven billion bags a year. Over the past year they sold just 1.3 billion single-use plastic carrier bags.
All large retailers sold 2.1 billion single-use plastic carrier bags during the year from 7 April 2016 to 6 April 2017.
A Tesco spokesman said: “We’re encouraging our customers to use fewer single-use bags, and since the introduction of the Bag Levy in 2015, the number being bought at Tesco has decreased by 80 per cent.
“The money raised from our customers buying bags is making a big difference to local communities across the country, with over £30 million being provided to more than 4,600 community projects as part of Tesco’s Bags of Help initiative.”