Conference Notes:

1. There are 15 billion plastic bags distributed in the UK every year. They are often non-recyclable so either are put into land fill sites or burnt, releasing damaging carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to Global warming.
2. The worrying reduction in capacity of land fill sites in the UK, of which the plastic bag is a huge offender, and the UK's record as the one of the worst recyclers in the EU.
3. The harm dolphins and sea-dwelling creatures, block drainage systems and cause a general litter nuisance caused by plastic bags.
4. A lack of legislation or even policy to try and reduce the wastage of plastic bags in this country.
5. In 2002, Ireland imposed a tax on every plastic bag given to customers in order to reduce consumption of plastic bags. Bangladesh banned polythene bags altogether and Singapore and Taiwan look set to do the same.
6. Ireland's plastic bag tax reduced plastic bag consumption by over 90%. The tax in Ireland was a huge success credited with raising public awareness of litter, pollution and recycling.

Conference Believes:

1. That all citizens should have a duty to protect the environment, by contributing to environmental schemes financially, and by reducing their wastage of plastic bags. This can be done by taxing the distribution of each plastic bag in this country.
2. Plastic Bag tax would provide the Government with extra revenue which could be used specifically to pay for environmental and recycling projects, in order to increase public acceptance and approval of the tax.
3. It is not a compulsory tax, it is not even an unavoidable tax, the consumer only has to pay the tax if they believe taking a new plastic bag is absolutely necessary, ie they could reuse old plastic bags.
4. Shops and supermarkets who produce excessive numbers of plastic bags as a marketing tactic and for customers' 'convenience' will be under less pressure to produce huge numbers of plastic bags because public demand for plastic bags (that they pay for the cost of producing) will be reduced massively, possibly enabling the money they will save to be passed on to the consumer, meaning the plastic bag tax will not adversely affect consumers' shopping bills.

Conference Resolves:

1. Every eligible shop must pay l0p to the Government for every plastic bag distributed to a customer. The shop would be legally obliged to pass on this cost to the customer.
2. All plastic bags are included, except those plastic wrappings covering meat, fish and dairy products. It is hoped shops selling these products could be encouraged to reduce production and wastage of these products.