The Environment Minister Alex Attwood has announced plans for a levy on plastic bags starting from next year. TIDY NI thinks the impact this could have on litter is well worth the initial inconvenience caused for people who haven't already embraced the 'bag for life' idea.

The initial 5p levy on single-use carrier bags must be approved by The Assembly before they become law in April 2013, and then double to 10p in 2014 when a 10p levy on the more durable multi-use shopping bags will also be brought in, Environment Minister Alex Attwood has said.

All single-use bags - including plastic, paper and "plant based material" bags - will be liable for the new tax.

Northern Ireland will become the second UK region to implement such measures, following Wales' lead last year.

Chris Allen, the Local Environmental Quality Officer for TIDY NI, said "We support the levy. There is no real need to have so many plastic bags in circulation. To use them once and then throw them away is an unforgivable waste of resources. We survey every council in Northern Ireland annually, and we find plastic bags on around 10% of transects, or places we survey. And that doesn't include the bags caught in trees and hedges and along rivers - we just count those on the ground. That's a little less than last year, but still an enormous amount of bags that were used, probably for just a few minutes, and then thrown away."

"We support any measure that will reduce the blight of litter we content with every day. Whilst plastic bags only make up a tiny fraction of the litter encountered its impact is extremely harmful - killing and choking wildlife, blighting hedges and riversides - a real off-putting sight for tourists - and degrading only very slowly. TIDY NI would welcome other similar measures being introduced to deal with some of the more frequently encountered litter types, particularly drinks containers, many of which are recyclable. Whilst we recognise the difficulties of a reverse vending scheme operating solely in NI we believe that this has the potential for making a hugely positive environmental impact and is worth thoroughly investigating."

A similar, single-use carrier bag levy has been operating in the Republic of Ireland since 2002.

Minister Attwood said he was setting the 5p rate in the first year to allow customers time to adjust to the concept. "Evidence from other countries demonstrates that a bag levy is a simple and effective means to reduce substantially the negative environmental impact of carrier bag consumption.