From the end of next year, all shops, market stalls and takeaways in Wales will be obliged to charge up to 15p each for plastic or paper bags. Wales is to become the first part of Britain to ban free carrier bags after deciding that efforts by supermarkets to cut waste have proved ineffective.
Jane Davidson, the Welsh Environment Minister, said that the revenue（收入） would go to a new independent body, which would spend the money on local environmental projects. She admitted that a small number of people might switch to shops in England, where there are no plans to charge for carrier bags. She said that tough action was necessary. Ms Davidson, a Labor member of the Welsh Assembly’s ruling Labor-Plaid Cymrucoalition, hopes the ban will embarrass her counterparts（对应的人） in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland into similar action.
Wales is planning to use a little-known clause(条款) in last year’s Climate Change Act, which enables the government to outlaw free bags. Ms. Davidson said: “We want to encourage people to think about what they do. All the other ministers are still signed up to the voluntary agenda. You will see a different message from me.”
Last week the media revealed that Tesco had published misleading figures giving the impression that it had met a voluntary target to halve the use of plastic bags in three years. Seven supermarket chains reported last month that the total number of free bags they had issued had fallen by 48 percent to 450 million a month in the three years to last May. The figures masked that Marks & Spencer, the only chain to charge for bags, had made much faster progress than its rivals. It cut bag use by 83 percent after introducing a 5p charge last year. Ms. Davidson said that banning free bags would encourage a wider shift to a less wasteful society. She was considering a charge of between 5p and 15p, but indicated that she favored the upper end of the range.
【小题1】Which city is the first part of Britain to ban free carrier bags? _______| A．Wales | B．England |
| C．Scotland | D．Northern Ireland |
| A．the carrier bags are cheaper there | B．the goods there are free |
| C．the goods there are cheaper | D．the carrier bags are free there |
| A．arousing public’s sense of reducing waste | B．reducing the customers’ resistance |
| C．promoting charging bags with legal means | D．enabling supermarket to cut waste |
| A．5p | B．15p |
| C．between 5p and 15p | D．above 15p |
