A bag full of the Queen's speech

4 June 2014

Mail plastic

In anticipation of the announcement of the coalition's plans for its last year in government in today's Queen's speech, the Daily Mail front page told readers to expect the introduction of a 5p charge for plastic bags.

The Mail claimed this was to curtail more than eight billion disposable bags used in England each year - a figure which actually applies to the whole of the UK.

The most recent figures, available from WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme), found 8.1 billion single-use carrier bags were used in the UK in 2012.

Update 11:50: The piece previously incorrectly stated that the 8.1 billion figure included re-usable bags and 'Bags for Life'. 

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