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Final report SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey Technical note on a Pilot to identify an approach to obtain data on carrier bag usage by SMEs Project code: CBG001-003 Research date: February 2015 Date: November 2015

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Final report

SME plastic carrier bag pilot

survey

Technical note on a Pilot to identify an approach to obtain data on

carrier bag usage by SMEs

Project code: CBG001-003

Research date: February 2015 Date: November 2015

WRAP’s vision is a world in which

resources are used sustainably.

Our mission is to accelerate the move to a

sustainable resource-efficient economy

through re-inventing how we design,

produce and sell products; re-thinking

how we use and consume products; and

re-defining what is possible through re-

use and recycling.

Find out more at www.wrap.org.uk

Document reference:

WRAP, 2015, Banbury, SME Plastic Carrier Bag Pilot Survey, Prepared by Claire Fairclough, Databuild.

Document reference (please use this reference when citing WRAP’s work):

[WRAP, Year, Town, Title of Report, Prepared by xx]

Document reference: [e.g. WRAP, 2006, Report Name (WRAP Project TYR009-19. Report prepared by…..Banbury, WRAP]

Written by: Claire Fairclough

Front cover photography: Carrier Bags.

While we have tried to make sure this report is accurate, we cannot accept responsibility or be held legally responsible for any loss or damage arising out of or in

connection with this information being inaccurate, incomplete or misleading. This material is copyrighted. You can copy it free of charge as long as the material is

accurate and not used in a misleading context. You must identify the source of the material and acknowledge our copyright. You must not use material to endorse or

suggest we have endorsed a commercial product or service. For more details please see our terms and conditions on our website at www.wrap.org.uk

WRAP – SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 3

Contents

1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 4

1.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 4

2.0 Research objectives ................................................................................................ 4

3.0 Methodology ............................................................................................................ 4

3.1 Overall approach .................................................................................................... 4

3.1.1 Telephone interviews ................................................................................ 4

3.1.2 Face-to-face interviews .............................................................................. 5

4.0 Findings .................................................................................................................... 5

4.1 Willingness to participate ...................................................................................... 5

4.1.1 Telephone interview participation ........................................................... 5

4.1.2 Face-to-face interview participation ........................................................ 5

4.2 Ability of SMEs to respond .................................................................................... 6

4.2.1 Telephone interviews ................................................................................ 6

4.2.2 Face-to-face interviews .............................................................................. 6

4.3 Understanding best terminology for further surveys ...................................... 6

4.3.1 How SME retailers estimate ...................................................................... 6

4.3.2 SME retailer understanding of carrier bag thickness ........................... 7

5.0 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 7

5.1 Willingness to participate ...................................................................................... 7

5.2 Ability to participate ............................................................................................... 7

5.3 Terminology for future research ......................................................................... 8

Appendix 1 .......................................................................................................................... 9

Telephone and face-to-face interview questionnaire ................................................... 9

Appendix 2 ........................................................................................................................ 12

Telephone interview responses: Carrier bag usage estimates .................................. 12

Appendix 3 ........................................................................................................................ 14

Face-to-face interview responses: Carrier bag usage estimates ............................... 14

Tables

Table 1 Participation by sector- telephone survey ................................................................... 5

Table 2 Willingness to participate by sector – number of face-to-face surveys .................. 6

WRAP – SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 4

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background

A charge for plastic carrier bags in England was announced by the Deputy Prime

Minister in September 2013 and came into effect in October 2015. Although SMEs are

exempt from the charge, the introduction of the charge may have some effect on their

behaviour.

To provide a good overall picture of carrier bag usage in England the estimates for the

numbers of carrier bags larger retailers (grocery and non-grocery) need to be combined

with the estimated being issued by SME retailers.

Including SME retailers in the research creates a significant number of challenges to

such as the SME retailers’ willingness to participate and their ability to be able to

respond accurately.

As a result of these challenges, WRAP commissioned a small scale pilot to understand

the potential to collect data on plastic carrier bag issuing behaviour from SMEs by asking

a random sample of SME retailers (both over the telephone and face-to-face) about their

willingness and ability to provide the information required.

2.0 Research objectives

The objectives of this pilot were to assess the potential to collect data on plastic carrier

bags from SMEs and specifically to:

a) Understand their willingness to participate.

b) Assess the ability of SMEs to respond to questions.

c) Understand the best terminology for any potential future survey.

3.0 Methodology

3.1 Overall approach

Research for this pilot survey was undertaken through a mixture of telephone and face-

to-face interviews. Please see Appendix 1 for a full copy of the questionnaire.

3.1.1 Telephone interviews

206 retailers were approached by telephone to participate. The sample represented

seven different sectors and five locations to ensure a broad coverage of the SME

population in both urban and semi urban locations. Yell.com was used to obtain

telephone numbers. Telephone interviews ranged from between one and four minutes

in length but on average the call lasted just under two minutes.

The sectors included grocers, green grocers, newsagents, hardware stores, clothes

boutiques, gift shops and pet shops.

Locations included Birmingham, Harrogate, Exeter, Orpington and Bromsgrove.

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 5

3.1.2 Face-to-face interviews

20 face-to-face Interviews were carried out in Sutton Coldfield, Cotteridge and

Northfield, all high streets in Birmingham where there are a variety of SME retailers. The

face-to-face interviews took on average seven to eight minutes to complete; 15 minutes

being the longest.

4.0 Findings

4.1 Willingness to participate

4.1.1 Telephone interview participation

206 retailers were telephoned of which 61 were willing to participate, 24 declined and

121 did not respond for a variety of reasons including the telephone number not

connecting, a language barrier, the shop owner not available or simply hanging up the

phone.

Table 1 Participation by sector- telephone survey

TOTAL Newsagents Green

Grocer

Clothes

Shop

Hardware

Store

Grocer Pet

Shop

Gift

Shop

Yes 61 10 7 7 10 11 8 8

No 24 10 4 0 0 8 1 1

No

response

121 17 10 11 22 43 4 14

TOTAL 206 37 21 18 32 62 13 23

Amongst the retailers that were contacted and spoken to, clothes shops and hardware

shops were more willing to participate. This might be because they generally have lower

footfall and more time to respond to a survey.

Amongst those interviewed, there was no unprompted mention of a carrier bag charge.

Some respondents gave their view on this when they asked what the survey was about

and an explanation further than outlined in the introductory script was required.

Three respondents were removed from the dataset for analysis as they realised they

were unable to answer the questions once they had agreed to participate.

4.1.2 Face-to-face interview participation

20 retailers were visited in three West Midland high streets (Cotteridge, Boldmere in

Sutton Coldfield and Northfield). 100% of those asked were happy to respond to the

survey; one retailer providing information about three of their greengroceries and

another spoke about their two clothes stores. They were all very keen to take part and

talk about their businesses. Two respondents were then removed from the dataset as

they realised they were unable to answer the questions once they had agreed to

participate.

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 6

Table 2 Willingness to participate by sector – number of face-to-face surveys

Number willing to

participate

Newsagents 4

Green Grocer 4

Clothes Shop 4

Hardware Store 2

Grocer 1

Pet Shop 1

Gift Shop 3

Charity Shop 1

Total 20

4.2 Ability of SMEs to respond

The overall finding from both the telephone and face-to-face interviews is that although

willing to estimate a figure, very few SME retailers actually know how many plastic

carrier bags they use with any degree of accuracy. Most estimates provided were

acknowledged as such. Whilst a few retailers stated that they did know, they were still

only able to give a very rough estimate.

4.2.1 Telephone interviews

When questioned about their plastic carrier bag usage, only four respondents (three

hardware and one grocery store) responded that they could provide an annual number

of carrier bags used. Their response however was only an estimate and they had no

exact way of knowing their usage. The remaining 54 respondents stated they did not

know the exact number on an annual basis, but were willing to estimate across a shorter

time period e.g. a week. Two respondents provided an estimate of their use of paper

bags.

4.2.2 Face-to-face interviews

During the face-to-face interviews two of the twenty respondents stated that they knew

how many carrier bags were used on an annual basis, but as with the telephone

interviews their responses were an estimate. 16 respondents provided an estimate

across a shorter time period (including one of paper bag use) and two declined to

estimate.

4.3 Understanding best terminology for further surveys

4.3.1 How SME retailers estimate

The vast majority of retailers provided their response by thinking in terms of the

number of plastic carrier bags they issue per day or per week. Appendix 2 and 3 show

the responses and the language used when making the estimates. Responses were

expressed in rounded numbers and vary significantly in terms of volumes. The two

respondents interviewed with more than one shop provided the same estimate for each

shop. Some retailers mentioned additional challenges in estimation around seasonality.

A few retailers used their purchasing behaviour to provide an estimate (e.g. based on

number of boxes of bags purchased over a specific timescale).

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 7

When estimating, two respondents (one interviewed by telephone and one interviewed

face-to-face) provided information about their use of paper bags. Despite the

discussion being introduced as one about plastic carrier bags, there was a need to

reinforce this throughout.

All retailers were referring to their use of plastic carrier bags (e.g. rather than plastic

bags provided ‘on the roll’, used for handling fruit or vegetables). In a few cases

retailers, particularly greengrocers, referred to different size carrier bags but they were

all confirmed as plastic carrier bags for the purpose of the survey rather than the

smaller plastic bags. There were two issues to be alert to here:

1. The need to distinguish between small plastic bags and plastic carrier bags

2. The potential that retailers could issue plastic carrier bags of varying sizes to

customers.

4.3.2 SME retailer understanding of carrier bag thickness

No respondents knew the thickness of their carrier bags and all were only able to give

general responses such as, “Very thin” and “Standard, normal ones.”

During the face-to-face interviews carrier bag samples were collected and comparisons

could be made between responses and carrier bag samples to understand perceptions

of thickness. In a third of cases the interviewer was able to see the packaging containing

the bags and in 40% of these the packaging showed the thickness of bags. In most cases

plastic carrier bags were no longer in their original packaging.

5.0 Conclusions

5.1 Resultant outputs

It should be noted that this pilot study was undertaken to assess the willingness and

ability of retailers to contribute to a survey. Whilst the pilot demonstrated that this

methodology can capture data from SMEs, the outputs collated during the pilot are

neither accurate nor generalizable. Samples are not representative of UK retailers at a

national or sector level and the majority of responses are rough estimates. The data

presented in this report should not be taken as an indication of the performance of UK

SMEs.

5.2 Willingness to participate

Willingness to participate in the pilot survey was positive, with 30% of those contacted

by telephone and 100% of those approached in the face-to-face surveys being willing to

participate. Whilst 30% might appear low, given these are small retailers who were

contacted using yell.com this is a good result. With further attempts to re-contact those

unavailable at the time of initial and subsequent calls, it is likely the response rate would

have improved further.

5.3 Ability to participate

Of those who agreed to participate, both the telephone and face-to-face surveys have

demonstrated that small retailers are unaware of their plastic carrier bag usage and are

only able to inform a very rough estimate of what their annual usage may be by

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 8

providing estimates of daily, weekly or monthly usage. Although it is therefore possible

to determine a ‘number’ of plastic carrier bags that SME retailers use, this number would

need to be treated with caution and using this methodology, could be considered a

‘guestimate’.

5.4 Terminology for future research

For any future projects on this topic, it can be concluded that small retailers think about

and estimate their carrier bag usage in terms of how many they use per day or per week

(and use this to calculate their annual usage). In terms of carrier bag thickness, they are

also only able to give generic responses such as “very thin” or “standard” rather than

technical specifications of carrier bag type. There is also a need to distinguish plastic

carrier bags as distinct from paper bags or smaller plastic bags.

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 9

Appendix 1

Telephone and face-to-face interview questionnaire

Questionnaire – Guidance for reader

● Square brackets and italics e.g. [Ask if Q1=1 or Q2=1] denote routing instructions or

instructions to researchers and will not be read out to the respondent.

● [OE] – denotes that a free-form text, open ended response should be captured.

Introduction

● Good morning / afternoon, my name is x from Databuild Research and Solutions, an

independent research company. We are currently doing some exploratory research

about understanding carrier bag use amongst small and medium sized retailers?

Do you have a few minutes for me to ask you five or six questions about this?

[If asked]:

● [Telephone survey] Organisation name was identified from a commercial

database

● The work is on behalf of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)

● WRAP are interested in understanding how many plastic carrier bags are issued

by small and medium sized retailers

● This is part of understanding the potential effect of a charge for plastic carrier

bags (although small retailers will be exempt from this)

[Willingness to participate - categorise response]:

● [If yes] Continue

● [if no] Record, with a reason, if provided

[If the respondent cannot participate in the research straight away, make an appointment to

call the respondent back]

[Telephone survey: In order to comply with the MRS code of conduct]: Before I

ask my questions, I need to let you know that all responses will be treated in

confidence and will only be used for research purposes by the team undertaking

this research. Calls may be monitored for training purposes.

[Face-to-face survey: In order to comply with the MRS code of conduct]: Before I

ask my questions, I need to let you know that all responses will be treated in

confidence and will only be used for research purposes by the team undertaking

this research.

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 10

Telephone survey and face-to-face survey: Questions

1. [Capture type of retailer – no need to ask if interview is being conducted face-to-

face] Can I just check, your business is a:

● Newsagent

● Greengrocer

● Grocer

● Hardware shop

● Clothes shop

● Pet shop

● Gift shop

● Other, please specify

2. [How many people are employed in your business? [FTE Capture number]:

● < 250, an SME - continue

● Over 250, a large firm – close

3. Is your shop a franchise or part of a larger chain?

Franchise

Larger chain – [capture number of employees. If over 250, a large firm – close]

Neither

4. Do you know how many plastic carrier bags you use in a year? [capture OE]

● [If yes] How many?

● [If no - see how respondents spontaneously considers the question – rather than

probing with a range for example] Are you able to estimate the number of carrier

bags you use in some other way?

5. Do you know the thickness of the plastic carrier bags you use?

● Yes [capture OE]

● No

Face-to-face survey only: Questions

6. Is the thickness of the plastic carrier bags that you use indicated on the box that you

purchase them in?

● Yes

● No

[Either way – capture any information about the box, especially if you are able to

look at it]

7. [To enable comparison to respondent answer on carrier bag thickness] Would you

mind if I took a carrier bag as a sample?

Yes

No

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 11

Closing questions

8. That covers all the questions I had today; many thanks for your time and help.

Would you like to take our number or the Market Research Society Free-phone

number in order to confirm who we are?

Asked for Databuild number – 0121 687 1144

Asked for MRS Freephone number - 0500 39 69 99

No

Capture anecdotal information

9. [Do not ask question] Record anything the responses mentions about carrier bag

use during the conversation

10. [Do not ask question] Record your own thoughts on the responses provided e.g. the

quality of responses provided

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 12

Appendix 2

Telephone interview responses: Carrier bag usage estimates

(Greyed out respondents offered carrier bag usage on an annual basis although it is actually an estimate)

Per Day Per Week Per Month Per

Quarter Annual

Annual Implied

Estimate

Hardware

Less than 1000

Less than 100

Hardware 24,000 24,000

Hardware 1000 1000

Grocer 1000 1000

Greengrocer About 200 a week 10400

Greengrocer Maybe about 200 a week 10400

Greengrocer 20 a day 7280

Greengrocer A 2000 box of carrier bags of a week

1 104000

Greengrocer 100 a week 5200

Greengrocer 20 a day 7280

Clothes Not many, won't be more than 100 5200

Clothes Probably 100 a week 5200

Clothes Less than 100 a week 5200

Clothes About 10 a day 3640

Clothes

Probably about 10 a day but more on the weekend 4160

Clothes

10-20 per day, about 40 on a Saturday. (paper) 0

Clothes 220 per week rough estimate (paper) 0

Gift Shops Maybe around 200 a week 10400

Gift Shops About 300 a week 15600

Gift Shops 2000 a quarter 8000

Gift Shops 4-10 a day 2184

Gift Shops Probably under 200 a week 10400

Gift Shops Not many, about 100 a week 5200

Gift Shops

Not a clue, very roughly about 600 a month maybe more 7200

Gift Shops About 200 a week 10400

Grocers Maybe 50 a day 18200

Grocers Maybe 200 a week 10400

1 Also estimated using two boxes of 1000 small plastic bags per week

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 13

Per Day Per Week Per Month Per

Quarter Annual

Annual Implied

Estimate

Grocers 3000-4000 a month 48000

Grocers 30 a day 10920

Grocers 1000 bags every 2-3 weeks 20000

Grocers 100 a week 5200

Grocers 200 a week 10400

Grocers 30 a day 10920

Grocers 10 to 12 a day 3640

Grocers 50 a day 18200

Hardware 1000 a week 52000

Hardware

Think we use 50-60 per week but this may increase during summer 2600

Hardware Less than a 1000 a month 12000

Hardware 200 a week 10400

Hardware At least 500 a month 6000

Hardware 1 a week 52

Newsagents box of 1000 every 8 weeks 6500

Newsagents About a 1000 a week 5200

Newsagents 200 a week 10400

Newsagents Maybe about 30 a day 10920

Newsagents 20 a day roughly 7280

Newsagents Maybe about 30 a day 10920

Newsagents 200 a week, rough estimate 10400

Newsagents 50 a day 18200

Newsagents 30-50 a day 10920

Newsagents 200 a week 10400

Pet Shop Less than 100 a week 5200

Pet Shop

Really rough estimate 10-15 a day but varies 3640

Pet Shop 30 a week 1560

Pet Shop 1 a week 52

Pet Shop 6 a week 312

Pet Shop

1000 every couple of months, about 500 a month 6000

Pet Shop Maybe 10 a week 520

SME plastic carrier bag pilot survey 14

Appendix 3

Face-to-face interview responses: Carrier bag usage estimates

(Greyed out respondents stated they knew their carrier bag usage on an annual basis although it is actually an estimate)

Per Day Per Week Per Month Per

Quarter Annual

Annual

Implied

Estimate

Pet Shop

25,000 25,000

Clothes

400-500 400-500

Gift Shops

About 8

packets

with 100 a

week

41,600

Gift Shops 20 per day 6,240

Gift Shops

60 customers per day

(PAPER BAGS)

0

Charity Shops 5 per day 1,500

Clothes 10 a day 3,640

Clothes

200 a

week*

10,400

Clothes

200 a

week*

10,400

Clothes

50 per week 2,500

Greengrocer

Have two different types of

bags: 1000 a day of the

smaller bags and 250 a

day of the bigger ones*2

455,000

Greengrocer

Have two different types of

bags: 1000 a day of the

smaller bags and 250 a

day of the bigger ones*

455,000

Greengrocer

Have two different types of

bags: 1000 a day of the

smaller bags and 250 a

day of the bigger ones*

455,000

Greengrocer

200 a week 10,400

Greengrocer

4 boxes

ordered per

month with

100 in

4,800

Grocer

100 in box -

box per

month

1,200

Hardware

A few a

week

104

Hardware 100 a day

5,200

Newsagent

200 a week 10,400

Newsagent 50 a day

18,200

Newsagent

100 per

week

5,200

*duplication due to owner having multiple shops within the area

2 Retailer issues two sizes of plastic carrier bags to customer, choice dependent on size of purchase

www.wrap.org.uk/relevant link