Petition England's Plastic Bag Trading Scheme (PBTS)

Globally one million plastic bags are handed out every minute. The 'plastic bag' has become a symbol of our throw away culture and will remain unless human behaviour changes dramatically.

Outline of the PBTS – Cap & Trade

• HM Government sets a fixed number and price of plastic bag permits to be allocated each year to supermarkets and other retailers;
• Total number of permits is the limit on pollution ‘the cap’;
• Permits can be traded i.e. ‘cap and trade’;
• Retailers which reduce (abate) pollution for less than the price of the permit can sell the spare ones for profit
• Retailers that find it more expensive to reduce pollution can buy extra permits;
• Gradually the supply of permits is reduced and the market price rises. This gives firms an incentive to seek new technologies/processes that will reduce their pollution emissions i.e. higher recycled plastic content in plastic bags or use of alternative materials bioplastics