Idea mooted that NI plastic bag charges could double like those in England

The fee in England will be doubled to 10p, and extended to all shops, from April next year (currently small retailers – those employing less than 250 people – are exempt).

Five pence is levied upon carrier bags in NI, in all shops.

The charge was introduced in 2013 and has seen the number of bags used cut by more than two-thirds.

Officials from Stormont’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs briefed the Stormont scrutiny committee on Thursday, with official Anthony Courtney saying: “There are separate strands of work ongoing around plastics.

“Officials are looking at whether it would be appropriate to try to introduce measures on single-use plastics in Northern Ireland similar to those being implemented in the UK.

“At a broader level in the UK there are legislative measures being introduced that will have a significant impact on plastics.”

Twenty-four environmental projects in Northern Ireland will receive £2.2m raised by the plastic bag tax over the past year.

Glyn Roberts, chief executive of Retail NI (formerly the NI Independent Retail Association), said he had not been notified of any possible changes to the law in the Province, saying they are currently “in the dark” on the matter.

Mr Roberts (whose group represents 1,800 small to medium firms) said: “We haven’t heard anything official from the department. We’d hope they’d consult and listen to the views of retailers before they make a decision.”

He said there are “concerns about the impact this would have on consumers”.

Writing for NASA earlier this summer, researcher Michon Scott said: “50 years ago global annual plastic production was less than 50m tons. In 2015, it was nearly 450m tons.

“Every year between five and 14m tons reach the ocean, and that’s just from coastal regions.”

It ends up in plankton, which in turn ends up in fish, and can enter their brains.

Researchers sampling sea ice have found about 12,000 plastic particles per litre of ice.