Is there a role for disposable shopping bags? Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
London's councils (with the exception of Hounslow) are using a private bill to win powers to stop London retailers from providing customers with carrier bags, free or paid-for, paper or plastic, to take their goods home in.
If successful they would create an army of bag-ban enforcers with Customs-style powers to burst into premises, demand evidence and issue fines to retailers found with supplies of bags "held for provision to customers".
The London local authorities (shopping bags) bill is being condemned by retailers of all sizes with us, the British Retail Consortium, and the Association of Convenience Stores uniting to petition parliament against it.
A total ban would make virtually no environmental difference but would have a serious impact on customers and retailers. It would disproportionately affect impulse buys which are particularly important to convenience stores and make carrying out large or expensive items such as clothing - that need protection - difficult for shoppers.
It also flies in the face of a national voluntary agreement retailers reached with the government only last year. Retailers of all types are already well on the way to meeting a voluntary pledge to achieve a 25% reduction in the environmental impact of bags.
Councils should be supporting retailers' moves to improve their own - and customers' - environmental performance, not wasting effort and money on pointless headline-grabbing gestures.
It's ironic that councils are pushing to take on heavy costs of enforcement at a time when they claim they are underresourced. If they have money to spare wouldn't it be more effectively spent on boosting recycling facilities, not damaging customers' ability to shop and retailers' ability to trade?
