Hundreds of millions of plastic bags worth a total of £27 million have been stolen from supermarkets since the introduction of a 5p plastic bag charge in October 2015, according to a survey.
VoucherCodesPro.co.uk found that, of the 2784 people surveyed, 51 per cent said they took an average of three bags a month from supermarkets.
More than a quarter said they didn't want to pay 5p because it was a waste of money, while 22 per cent said they took them because they thought no one would notice.
The website crunched the numbers and estimated that around £27 million worth of bags had been stolen since October, or 533 million 5p bags.
That's still small fry compared to the 7.6 billion plastic bags taken home by shoppers before the charges were introduced.
Plastic bag use has dropped by around 80 per cent since October.
Shoppers have taken extreme measures to get out of paying for bags before. Last year it was revealed that some shoppers were taking their entire trolley home.
The Government hope to raise up to £780 million for good causes from the scheme and save another £13 million in carbon costs.
