B&Q to charge for plastic bags

Following in the footsteps of IKEA, Britain’s B&Q chain of DIY stores plans to reduce reliance on free plastic bags in an effort to be more eco-friendly.

The retailer has been conducting a trial period of charging for plastic bags in Scotland and northeast England. In those locations, customers were charged an additional 5 pence (about 10 cents) for plastic bags at checkout. Now B&Q plans to roll out the trial to all of its more than 300 stores, according to the retailer’s parent, Kingfisher.

While charging for plastic bags in an effort to phase them out of use has been popular in Europe, IKEA is one of only a handful of retailers to charge for plastic bags in the United States.

Several countries have banned the use of plastic bags outright, while others have voted to limit their use, including Italy, Ireland, South Africa and Australia.