Ikea is to become the UK’s first major retailer to regularly charge customers for plastic bags, to try and tackle waste and environmental damage.

The Swedish firm will charge shoppers 5p for every bag with immediate effect, rising to 10p in September.

It believes the move – accompanied by a switch to biodegradable bags and lower prices for reusable bags – will cut total bag use by 20 million next year.

The Environment Agency praised the move as a “great example” to other firms.

BBC NEWS

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“IKEA, an international leader in promoting sustainable business practices,
has teamed up with American Forests to clean the air and sequester carbon
through tree planting. The average American family needs to plant 30 trees to
offset the CO2 produced by their daily energy use. By planting your trees now,
you will join IKEA and American Forests in planting trees to offset CO2 and cool
the globe.

Our focus is to offset the CO2 emitted from cars traveling to and from IKEA
stores. Each IKEA store will plant enough trees (about 33,100 trees each year)
to offset the annual CO2 emissions produced by IKEA co-workers and IKEA visitors
driving to the store each year. IKEA’s offset trees be planted in AMERICAN
FORESTS Global ReLeaf projects around the US.”

American Forests

[Thanks John!]