Tesco to stop selling 5p plastic bags in Norwich stores

Tesco will no longer sell 5p plastic carrier bags in Norwich. Picture: ANTONY KELLY. Archant Norfolk 2016

Shoppers at Tesco stores in Norwich will no longer be able to buy 5p plastic bags after the company removed them from shops in the city as part of a trial.

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People wanting to purchase a plastic bag for their shopping will instead have to buy an 8p or 10p Bag for Life.

Norwich is just one of three cities in the city where the short trial is happening with stores in Aberdeen and Dundee also involved.

A spokesperson for Tesco said: “We are carrying out a short trial in our Norwich stores to look at the impact on bag usage if we remove single use carrier bags. In these stores customers who need a bag can still buy a Bag for Life which they can reuse.”

Bags of Help, an initiative that distributes the bag levy money to community groups for their green projects, will continue in the city.

Ernie Forder, 78, a builder from Salhouse. Picture Florence Bloomfield Ernie Forder, 78, a builder from Salhouse. Picture Florence Bloomfield

Shoppers in the city centre welcomed the move with many thinking it will deter people from buying plastic bags.

Louise Hunt, 41, a host supervisor from Blofield, said she hopes it will “encourage people to remember” their shopping bags.

“In the boot of my car I always have the Hessian bags,” she added. “If I were caught without a bag I would re-use the 10p bag.”

Ernie Forder, 78, a builder from Salhouse, said he always brings his own bags when shopping. “It’s all good if it helps to save the environment,” he added.

Sandra Armes, 76, from Norwich. Picture Florence Bloomfield Sandra Armes, 76, from Norwich. Picture Florence Bloomfield

And Sandra Armes, 76, from Norwich, welcomed the trial. “I always take my own,” she said. “If they get rid of the 5p Tesco bag, the 10p should be more substantial.”

The plastic bag charge was introduced in 2015 and government figures published last year reported that six billion fewer bags had been used since the payment was implemented.

More than seven billion carrier bags were issued by the seven main supermarkets in 2014, falling to just over half a billion in the first six months since the 5p charge for single use carrier bags.

The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs said the amount of bags saved was the equivalent weight of roughly 300 blue whales, 300,000 sea turtles or three million pelicans.