Charging for plastic bags has led to an 80% fall in the number found on the UK’s beaches over the last decade, a Marine Conservation Society (MCS) study says.

The ocean charity carries out annual litter surveys in which volunteers record all litter that they find within a 100-metre stretch of beach.

An estimated 7.6 billion bags a year were handed out by the leading supermarkets before the 5p charge was introduced in 2015. All retailers with more than 250 employees were obliged to apply the charge to their plastic bags, with many small businesses also reporting voluntarily.

In 2020, figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs showed that bag sales fell by 95% since the introduction of the charge. In 2021, the charge was increased to 10p and extended to all businesses. Since then, the number of plastic bags used across all retailers fell a further 35%.

Although the charity’s beach cleaning initiative takes place year-round, the MCS collects a third of its data from...