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Carrier bag levy raises almost £9 million in two years

The carrier bag levy has raised almost £9 million in two years for the Department of the Environment. Picture by Aidan O'Reilly
The carrier bag levy has raised almost £9 million in two years for the Department of the Environment. Picture by Aidan O'Reilly The carrier bag levy has raised almost £9 million in two years for the Department of the Environment. Picture by Aidan O'Reilly

THE carrier bag levy has raised almost £9 million in two years.

Environment Minister Mark H Durkan said a total of £8.8 million has been collected since 2013, with £4.2 million raised in the first year and £4.6 million last year.

The figures were released in response to a written Assembly question from North Down DUP MLA Alex Easton.

A minimum 5p charge is applicable to all plastic bags. The DoE said in 2014 that around 215 million fewer bags were used in the first year of the levy, a drop of around three-quarters.

The DoE has said that in 2013/14, £3.4 million of the total proceeds were spent on more than 250 environmental projects.

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

In 2014, the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) claimed that the levy was having a knock-on effect on retailers.

Chief executive Glyn Roberts said: "Our members have worked hard to administer and collect for this scheme and we are pleased to see progress.

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

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