Sales of plastic bags at Britain's seven biggest retailers have fallen by 90 per cent since the 5p charge was introduced in 2015, according to new government figures.
The government figures do not give a comparison of total plastic bag sales since 2015, but say britons now buy an average of 10 bags a year from the most popular supermarket retailers, up from 140 before the introduction of the charge in 2014.
The department for environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) said in a statement on July 31 that asda, marks and spencer, morrisons, sainsbury's, the co-operative group, tesco and waitrose sold 490m fewer single-use plastic bags in 2018-19, for a total of 549m fewer bags, down by almost half on the previous year.
All big retailers reported a 37 per cent year-on-year fall in single-use plastic bag sales to €1.11bn.
Britain introduced a 5p charge for plastic bags in October 2015 as part of a nationwide crackdown on plastic waste.
In August 2018, the government said it planned to extend the charge for single-use plastic bags to all retailers and raise the minimum charge to at least 10p.
So far, small and medium-sized businesses that waive fees for plastic bags have provided an estimated 3.4 billion single-use bags a year, the DEFRA statement said.
The trade body representing 40,000 small retailers has offered a 5p fee, but that is only about a fifth of the 220,000 or so small businesses in the UK.