South Africa’s war on plastic bags appears to be working

• News & Highlights

With more restaurants saying no to plastic straws in South Africa, and amid a concerted effort from retailers to cut down on the use of one-time plastics in their products, the move against plastic appears to be is resonating with the wider public, too.

According to the 2017/18 tax statistics published by SARS at the end of the year, revenue brought in by the sale of plastic bags via the plastic bags levy increased by R9 million to R242 million for the year.

However, while tax collection was up, the actual number of plastic bags sold was down substantially, when you consider the plastic bag levy increased from 8 cents per bag in 2016/17 to 12 cents per bag in 2017/18.

Thus the implied number of bags sold in the last financial year is just over 2 billion – down from the 2.9 billion sold in 2016/17.