A guide to the London Local Authorities (Shopping Bags) Bill

The London Local Authorities (Shopping Bags) Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, will bring about a ban on single-use throwaway shopping bags in London.

Londoners throw away more than 1 billion shopping bags a year, often after using them just once. Many of these can take up to 400 years to breakdown and can harm both wildlife and the environment. 

What is a throwaway shopping bag?

For the purposes of the Bill, a throwaway shopping bag is a bag supplied by the retailer to a customer for the single purpose of carrying their shopping home.

The Bill will ban bags made of any material - plastic or paper - if they are designed for a single use, and with an intentionally brief life-span.

Aren't plastic bags the big problem? Why don't you just want to ban them?

Plastic bags, if they are designed to be used once and then thrown away, are a big problem as they take so long to breakdown - up to 400 years. But paper bags can have just as bad an environmental impact as they are heavier to transport to landfill sites, which means greater energy consumption which causes more air pollution.

So instead of focusing on one material or another, we are addressing the entire concept of using something once and then throwing it away.

Banning all throwaway shopping bags sends a much clearer message both to the public and to retailers - if we are to preserve the environment for future generations then we need to adopt more sustainable habits.