The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) has reacted to the announcement from Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead that Scottish retailers will charge a minimum of 5p per bag by October 2014 in a bid to reduce carrier bag use.SRC director, Fiona Moriarty, said: “The retail sector accepts and acts on its leadership role in reducing environmental impact and waste. Working with our customers we have succeeded in reducing carrier bag usage by over 40%.
“The Scottish government has decided that it wants further and faster reductions and the only way it can achieve this is through legislation. However, it is our view that if we focus solely on plastic bags we are in danger of being distracted from much larger and more important issues around waste."
“The SRC will be working with the Scottish government to ensure that the legislation is proportionate and as far as possible consistent across the UK to avoid confusion for customers and businesses.”
