Retail giant Marks & Spencer is to donate \u00a33 million raised from its 5p charge on\u00a0plastic bags\u00a0to a charity dedicated to fighting litter on the UK\u2019s beaches and helping to save endangered marine animals such as dolphins and turtles.<\/p>\n
M&S were among the first national retail chains to impose a fee for plastic bags in order to give people an incentive to switch to reusable bags. The charge has had a profound effect on the habits of shoppers, and, since the fee was instituted, M&S has been able to cut down its plastic bag use by 80%.<\/p>\n
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To celebrate the success of the initiative and to further underline M&S\u2019s commitment to environmental issues, M&S will donate \u00a33 million of the money raised by the bag charge to the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), the World Wildlife Fund, and will also create a new educational programme to raise awareness of the environment amongst the UK\u2019s schoolchildren.<\/p>\n
The MCS will use the donation to fund beach clean-up campaigns, while the WWF has earmarked its share to both help preserve the UK\u2019s fish stocks and safeguard the future of endangered animals such as dolphins and turtles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Retail giant Marks & Spencer is to donate \u00a33 million raised from its 5p charge on\u00a0plastic bags\u00a0to a charity dedicated to fighting litter on the UK\u2019s beaches and helping to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-packaging-industry-news","tag-plastic-bags"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n