M&S to charge food shoppers for carrier bags
Marks & Spencer stepped up its drive for ethical trading today with a trial scheme which will see customers charged for carrier bags.
Food shoppers at the group’s 14 stores in the North will have to pay 5p for every plastic carrier bag they use in a trial starting in July.
During June, customers will be offered free “Bags for Life” with every food transaction. Then, for the month of July, customers will have to pay for their plastic carriers.
It was reported today that the trial could then be rolled out to the rest of the UK.
The move comes as part of M&S’s drive, called “Plan A”, towards ethical trading and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.
The five-year scheme will see M&S become carbon neutral, stop sending waste to landfill and extend its sustainable sourcing by 2012.
The group also announced that, in partnership with its suppliers, it will develop two “eco-factories” to pioneer methods of sustainable manufacturing.
The factories will make lingerie in Sri Lanka and upholstery for furniture in North Wales. Both sites will be carbon neutral and will have green roofs made from vegetation with the ability to harvest rainwater.
