A price on the bag
8 of 8
about 7.6 billion bags in 2014; each drawing is a billion
In 2014 the big supermarkets in England handed out about 7.6 billion plastic carrier bags. Free, at the till, one more with every shop. On 5 October 2015 the law made every big shop charge for each one: five pence.
- 04,2788,55720142024/25
The big supermarkets, England By 2024/25 those shops handed out about 164 million. Almost 98 in 100 gone, for five pence. In May 2021 the charge rose to 10p and went to every shop. The bags were never banned. They are still at the till. Almost nobody takes one.
- A free bagtaken without thinkingA 5p bagdo I need it?
What did the five pence do?
It turned a free thing into a small decision.
Right. At zero the bag was taken without a thought. At 5p the question got asked, and most people had a bag already. The size of the fall came from how easy the swap was.It banned the bags.
Not yet. Nothing was banned. The bags are still on sale at every till, at 10p now. A charge leaves the choice and changes its price.It paid for cleaning up the bags.
Not yet. The money stays with the shops; the government asks them to give it to good causes, and many do. The bags fell because of the asking, not because of what the money bought. - 19967 pounds a tonne buried2025126.15 pounds a tonne buried
Two kinds of bill. A charge stays with the gate: the shop keeps the bag money. A tax goes to the government. The landfill tax is a tax: from 1996 every tonne of ordinary rubbish buried paid £7, and by 2025, £126.15. In 2000, 78 in 100 tonnes of council waste were buried. In 2024/25, about 5 in 100.
Picture a town's rubbish. Say sorting a tonne for recycling costs £60, a made-up middle figure, and burying costs only the tax. Move the tax and watch the share buried. The shares are made up to show the shape; the tax rates are real.
Buried90 in 100 tonnesSorted10 in 100 tonnesLandfill tax, pounds a tonne: £7
£7, the 1996 rate. Burying is far cheaper than sorting. Nearly everything is buried.
Buried70 in 100 tonnesSorted30 in 100 tonnesLandfill tax, pounds a tonne: £40
£40. Burying is still cheaper than sorting for most of the pile, but the gap has closed.
Buried40 in 100 tonnesSorted60 in 100 tonnesLandfill tax, pounds a tonne: £80
£80. Burying now costs more than sorting. Most of the pile goes to be sorted.
Buried10 in 100 tonnesSorted90 in 100 tonnesLandfill tax, pounds a tonne: £126
£126, the 2025 rate. Burying costs twice what sorting does. Only what cannot be sorted is buried.
At what point does the share buried fall fastest?
It never falls. Rubbish has to go somewhere.
Not yet. It has to go somewhere, and the tax decides where. From 78 in 100 buried in 2000 to about 5 in 100 in 2024/25 is the real pile moving.At the first pound. Any tax works.
Not yet. From £7 to £40 the share buried barely moved, because burying was still the cheaper choice. A bill that leaves the cheap thing cheap changes little.When the tax passes what sorting costs.
Right. Below £60 a tonne, burying is the cheap option and the tax is a dent. Above it, sorting is the cheap option, and the pile moves. A bill works when it changes which choice is cheapest.Move the control.
- £5 a day2003£152020£182026
A road can carry a bill too. Since 17 February 2003 a car driving into central London has paid a charge: £5 then, £15 since 2020, £18 from January 2026. In the first year, 30 in 100 fewer cars came in. Since August 2023 a car that fails London's exhaust standard pays another £12.50 a day, anywhere in the city.
Three bills. Tap the one that is a tax, going to the government.
Tap the part of the picture that answers it.
10p on a bag£12.50 ULEZ a day£126 a tonne to landfill£126 a tonne to landfill
Right. A tax. Every tonne buried pays it to the Treasury, which is how the government's bill differs from the shop's: it does not stay at the gate.10p on a bag
Not yet. A charge. The shop keeps it; the government asks shops to give it to good causes, and many do. The law set the price; it does not collect it.£12.50 ULEZ a day
Not yet. A charge. It is paid to Transport for London, the body that runs the roads and the zone. It stays with the gate.- Quietest category706 pounds a movement, 2025Loudest category14,113 pounds a movement, 2025
Heathrow's gate has a bill on it too. Every take-off and landing pays by the plane's noise category: in 2025, from about £706 for the quietest big plane to about £14,100 for the loudest. Since April 2004 each landing has also paid for the nitrogen oxide in its exhaust: £19.90 a kilogram in 2025. A cleaner, quieter plane pays less.
- Quietest706 pounds a movementLoudest14,113 pounds a movement
The loudest category pays about £14,113 each time it lands or takes off, the quietest about £706. About how many times more does the loud plane pay?
timesDivide the big number by the small one, roughly.
Right. About twenty times. A bill that size per movement, many movements a day, is what makes an airline's sums come out in favour of the quieter plane. That is the charge doing the town's arguing for it. - A bagyou already own oneA coffee cupdo you?
The bag charge was five pence and cut bags by almost 98 in 100. A friend says a 5p charge on takeaway coffee cups would do the same. What does the bag case really show?
A tiny charge works when the swap is easy. It says nothing about a thing people cannot easily do without.
Right. Nearly everyone had a bag at home. The charge only had to ask. A cup is harder to swap, so the same 5p would ask a harder question and get a smaller answer.Any 5p charge cuts anything by 98 in 100.
Not yet. The 98 in 100 came from how easy it was to say no to a bag, not from the five pence. Five pence on a thing people need would barely move it.Charges do not work. The bags came back.
Not yet. From 155 million to 164 million is a small rise after a fall from 7.6 billion. Reading a tick up as the bags coming back is reading the last year and not the ten.
Lesson complete
A small charge makes a free thing a decision. Tax goes to the state; a charge stays at the gate.