PIFA points to bag tax 'failure'

8 September 2006


The latest independent statistical report on official import and export figures across the EU shows that in 2005, the Republic of Ireland imported 20 per cent more plastics bags and sacks than the year before. These latest figures throw further serious doubt on the alleged success of a plastics bag tax in Eire, which was said to have reduced demand by more than 90 per cent. The latest Irish figures represent nearly double the increase experienced in the UK over the same period.

The figures were collated and analyzed by independent statistical analysts at Mike Kidwell Associates and were commissioned by the Packaging and Industrial Films Association. According to PIFA, they confirm evidence given to hearings held by the Scottish Parliament’s Environmental and Rural Development Committee, which pointed to a massive increase in the sales of bin liners and waste sacks – one of the most common re-uses for supermarket carrier bags.

PIFA chief executive David Tyson says: “These are official import export statistics. They expose the myth that a plastics carrier bag tax reduces the use of plastics bags. Such taxes merely displace demand into heavier gauge plastics bags for safe waste disposal or into paper which is proven to have greater environmental impacts. Whatever the misguided justification for plastics carrier bag taxes, these irrefutable facts show the tax isn’t working in Ireland and a tax proposed for Scotland wouldn’t work either.”

Barry Turner, chairman of the Carrier Bag Consortium, which is helping fight bag taxes across the world, adds: "As was concluded in Westminster in 2002, there are clear, unintended consequences from the Irish tax on plastics bags. More bin liners, refuse sacks, nappy bags and other waste bags are needed. More paper carriers are used, creating greater environmental impacts and there is more shop theft as some customers take advantage of being encouraged to carry their own bags around the shopping aisles.”

The CBC has participated throughout in the gathering of evidence by the Scottish Environment and Rural Affairs Committee as well as the investigations into the impacts of a Scottish Bag Tax carried out by the Scottish Executive. This independent work has already revealed that at least 13,000 tonnes of extra waste will be created as the result of a bag tax in Scotland as a direct result of retailers and consumers switching to heavier, higher volume alternatives to the plastics carrier bag.

The Scottish Environment and Rural Development Committee has given Bag Tax Bill promoter Mike Pringle MSP more time to find “more robust evidence” to support his case. However, according to PIFA, these latest official figures “serve as robust evidence that the Scottish bag tax proposal is fundamentally flawed”. The Committee is expected to report its final position to parliament by the end of September.


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