Carrier bag charge in Northern Ireland to increase to 25p

The charge for carrier bags in Northern Ireland is to increase from 5p to 25p from 1 April, Environment Minister Edwin Poots has said.

All bags priced at £5 or under will be subject to the charge, regardless of the material from which they are made.

Both Scotland and England increased charges for carrier bags to 10p earlier this year.

Mr Poots said the price rise would make Northern Ireland "a cleaner and more pleasant place in which to live".

Five pence has been levied on every carrier bag dispensed in Northern Ireland since 2013.

Proceeds from the carrier bag levy are to be re-invested in supporting the wider Northern Ireland environmental sector.

Money raised by the levy for 2020-2021 totalled £2.2m, a decrease of £2.2m from the previous year.

"I am aware that a significant number of retailers in Northern Ireland are selling large volumes of heavy duty bags at a cost of 20p or more each," Mr Poots said.

"These are now flooding the market and are not being reused, with harmful environmental consequences."

When the carrier bag levy was introduced, 300m single-use plastic bags were being issued a year in Northern Ireland.

That figure has been cut by by more than 80% in the interim eight years, with 56.2m bags issued in 2020/21.

Mr Poots said it was "unacceptable that far too much plastic ends up as pollution in our environment or waste in our landfills".

"With over five trillion single-use plastic bags used worldwide every year and plastic waste set to quadruple by 2050, I would encourage everyone to play their part locally and re-use bags whenever they can," he added.