By Chmee2 via Wikimedia Commons
TESCO
Tesco has invited customers to choose which good causes should benefit from the money made from the money raised from plastic bag charges in Wales and Scotland.
The elected charities are set to benefit from an estimated £1.8 million (€2.2 million) in funds generated from carrier bag sales.
Community Director for Tesco Greg Sage said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for organisations to partner with us and make a real difference to the communities they serve. Our customers are the ones who will pay the charge, so we really wanted them to choose the partners that will benefit from the money."
In June, the supermarket announced that charities and environmental organisations could submit their proposals on how they would use the money to help make a different for the environment and local communities. 120 organisations applied for the partnerships in Scotland and Wales, which have since been whittled down to a shortlist of five.
The good causes on the shortlist are Love Food Hate Waste, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Groundwork UK for Scotland, while for Wales the charities selected are Groundwork UK and Keep Wales Tidy.
One organisation will be selected to partner with Tesco and be the beneficiary of the bag levy for each region, with the Scottish charge expected to be worth £1 million, with Wales generating £800,000.
Both partnerships will run for an initial period of one year from October 1st 2014, while the voting process will run for the next fortnight.
"Since 2011, the carrier bag levy in Wales has raised over £2.3 million for the local RSPB, which has been used for vital conservation work. We received a huge number of very strong applications from different organisations to be our new partners, and it was a tough job whittling the applications down to just five. It’s now down to our customers to decide who the winners will be," Sage stated.
