The new tax on plastic bags has been a spectacular overnight success and is set to cut out over 90 per cent of the State's consumption of the environmentally damaging bags. The Revenue Commissioners took in €3.5 million as a result of the 15 cent levy between its introduction on March 4th and the end of June.
This figure, raised from almost 3,000 retailers, shows that the consumption of plastic bags has fallen by 90 per cent. If the trend continues, more than a billion of the usual 1.2 billion bags given out to the public each year will be taken out of circulation.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said yesterday it was "evidence that the mindset is changing and proof that implementation of similar strategies must continue if we are to tackle Ireland's waste problem".
He said that if current trends continue the levy will raise €10 million over a 12 month period.
He hailed the levy as "an outstanding success in achieving what it set out to do". The positive visual impact of the levy on the environment could be seen around the country, he said.
The levy had not only changed consumer behaviour in relation to disposable plastic bags but "it has also raised national consciousness about the role each one of us can, and must, play if we are to tackle collectively problems of litter and waste management.
"When one considers the scale of the litter problem caused by plastic bags in the past, and the resulting cost to the taxpayer, it brings home how this incentive has captured the public imagination." All money raised from the levy would be put to environmental use. He was considering the establishment of an office for environmental enforcement, implementing the waste prevention programme and developing an all-Ireland tender for the disposal of fridges and freezers.