5p for Carrier bags, good for the environment and good for business...
Today, Marks & Spencer begin charging 5p for food carrier bags. That's good for the environment because alongside the reduction in plastic that will be sent to landfill, the profit from the sale of the bags will go to Groundwork, an environmental charity which creates and improves green spaces across the UK. In preparation for this, M&S have been giving away free Bags for Life over the last month, with 15 Million given away so far. Customers will now be able to choose either a 5p food carrier or a Bag for Life costing 10p, to take their shopping home in. This is all part of Marks and Spencer's Plan A initiative which commits to, amongst others, reducing carrier bag usage by a third and to sending no waste to landfill by 2012.
With those free Bags for life costing £1.5M, how can that be good for business? Of course the key word in the above paragraph is profit. 'All of the profit from the sale of the bags'. Officially, that means 1.85p from the sale of single use food carrier bags will be donated to Groundwork. That's a nice 3.15p recouped per bag for M&S, which previously was bearing the costs of the plastic bags. So aside from the benefits of all the positive publicity, column inches, air time etc. On top of the competitive advantage gained by making the first move and being seen to set the standard for sustainability within the retail sector. You get to wipe out a very sizeable revenue charge in one fell swoop and get sector leading green credentials at the same time.
Now that's good business!