SHOPPERS in Scotland use a "staggering" 750 million disposable carrier bags a year and have increased their use over the past 12 months.
Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said the figure – which equates to 12 bags a month per person –showed why action was needed to tackle the issue.
The Scottish Government has announced plans to bring in a new charging regime, with shoppers to be charged 5p for single-use bags from October next year.
The proceeds from this will go to charity, with good causes expected to receive up to £5 million a year thanks to the scheme.
New figures from the organisation WRAP, which aims to reduce waste, showed supermarket shoppers in Scotland used 750 million thin gauge carrier bags in 2012 – up from 740 million the previous year. Across the UK, 8.1 billion single-use bags were used in 2012.
Mr Lochhead said: "Discarded carrier bags highlight our throwaway society. It's clear that we need decisive action and that's exactly what our new measures will do.
"By introducing a modest charge we can help to cut the number of bags which are often seen littering our streets, beaches and countryside."
Lang Banks, director of environmental campaign group WWF Scotland, said the figures on the number of plastic bags used were "pretty shocking".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article