Plastic pollution and the economics of the bag tax

In response to growing concerns about plastic pollution, the UK and a number of other countries have introduced a tax on single-use plastic carrier bags. Guglielmo Volpe explores how economics can shed light on the motivation for this tax and whether it has been effective

Answers to the questions in this article are provided online at www.hoddereducation.co.uk/economicreviewextras

For a number of years, environmental pollution caused by plastic waste has been of great concern for environmental activists, economists and policymakers. In the UK the issue has become even more prominent in recent months following the screening of the final episode of the BBC series Blue Planet II (2017), which featured powerful images of the damage that plastic waste is causing to the marine environment.