Highlights
- Plastic bag sales rise for first time in a decade as demand for online grocery deliveries surges.
- Ocado sold over 220 million single-use bags last year, accounting for more than half of UK total.
- Retail shift to e-commerce linked to higher plastic and carbon footprint
Single-use plastic bag sales in the country have increased for the first time since the 5p levy was introduced in 2015, shows recently released official figures. The rise comes amid a boom in online grocery shopping, with grocery delivery app Ocado singled out as the largest contributor.
According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), shoppers bought 437 million single-use plastic bags in 2024, up 7% from 407 million the previous year.
The increase marks the end of a decade-long decline that followed the introduction of the plastic bag charge, which doubled to 10p in 2021.
Wrap, a waste charity, has blamed internet sales, which have grown from about 2.8 per cent of all retail sales in 2006 to about 27 per cent in June this year, for increase in plastic bag sales.
Thomas Baker, a plastics specialist with Wrap, said the “growth of internet sales and methods used to pack items for online deliveries has contributed to the increase in single-use plastic carrier bags”.
Last year Ocado sold 221 million plastic bags, the equivalent of 51 per cent of all sold in the UK. The company, which delivers groceries to Marks & Spencer customers, still uses single-use carrier bags for its at home deliveries.
Ocado sold 30 million bags more last year than the previous year, which it put down to growth in its customer base.
After Ocado, the Co-op, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s sold the most plastic bags with 94 million, 58 million and 11 million sales, respectively. All three recorded an increase in sales. Tesco, Waitrose and Iceland all halted the sale of single-use bags in 2021.
Ocado, which is seeing a consistent rise in overall grocery market share, is also under fire over rise in air pollution.
A report published by the Centre for Cities, a think tank, found that home deliveries resulted in 100 million kg of carbon dioxide emissions in London between 2020 and 2021, the equivalent to 125,000 flights from London to New York.