Campaign launched for bag charges awareness

MSPs overwhelmingly backed the introduction of the charge in a vote at Holyrood earlier this year. Picture: Getty

Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead will unveil the public awareness campaign, which is getting under way less than a month before the levy is brought in.

From October 20 all retailers will have to charge a mandatory fee of at least 5p for each new single-use bag they give to customers, regardless of whether they are paper, plastic or made from a biodegradable material.

The proceeds from this will then be given to good causes.

MSPs overwhelmingly backed the introduction of the charge in a vote at Holyrood earlier this year.

The regulations were approved by 110 votes to 12, with Mr Lochhead insisting it was “time to take action” on the issue.

He said then: “Scotland uses around 750 million single-use carrier bags a year, each and every year, from supermarkets alone. More per head than anywhere else in these islands

“It’s time to take action to reduce the number of these bags given out. So this is part of our wider work to tackle Scotland’s litter problem.”

Mr Lochhead believes the new charges will challenge the “throw-away society” and encourage greater use of re-useable bags to “help make the most out of increasingly limited resources”.