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Plastic bag use down 72%

PLASTIC bag use in Northern Ireland has fallen by almost three quarters since a 5p tax was introduced last year - but shops are missing out on impulse buys as a result.

The Department of the Environment (DoE) has revealed that around 215 million fewer bags were used last year with £4.1 million raised through the levy for environmental spending.

It was the first set of official figures since charging for single-use carrier bags began in April last year.

Environment minister Mark H Durkan said: "The response from shoppers has been very positive and retailers have also risen to the challenge.

"The result has been a very significant reduction in single-use carrier bags," he said.

The total decreased by almost 72 per cent according to the DoE.

Mr Durkan said money raised through the tax in the past year had been reinvested in environmental projects.

Around 300 million carrier bags were used in the north in the year before the charge was introduced.

Retailers have to charge at least 5p for each single-use carrier bag supplied and pay any proceeds of the levy to Stormont's DoE.

The second phase of the bag levy will begin in January, when 5p will be added to the price of reusable bags that cost less than 20p.

Wales was the first UK country to introduce a plastic bag tax - doing so in 2011.

A rise in the number of single-use carrier bags handed out by UK supermarkets has prompted renewed calls for a stricter levy on plastic bags in England.

The number of single-use bags handed out by UK retailers rose for the fourth year in a row in 2013 to more than 8.3 billion, figures showed.

However, the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA), which represents small retailers, called on the minister not to add 5p to reusable bags.

Glyn Roberts, chief executive of NIIRTA, also explained that the levy was already having a knock-on effect on retailers.

"Our members have worked hard to administer and collect for this scheme and we are pleased to see progress," he said.

"We are also concerned about reports from our members that basket sales and impulse buying have been reduced following the introduction of the levy."

He said that as members of the public were "actually physically carrying goods" out of stores, they were "not buying as many goods" because they did not want to pay for a carrier bag.

Mr Roberts added that the organisation would prefer that the proceeds of the levy were used to fund sustainable town centre regeneration projects.