I Am Not A Plastic Green

M&S has been in the news this week launching its new initiative to charge 5p for their plastic carrier bags.  They will support their shoppers by giving them a free bag-for-life in the month leading up to the change and all profits from the sale of the bags will go to the Groundwork charity.
This issue was highlighted last year with the success of the Anya Hindmarsh ‘I am not a plastic bag’ shopping bag, which was developed in partnership with We Are What We Do.  It created huge public and media interest and became the must-have fashion accessory of last summer.  (To the extent that we recently noticed fake versions being sold on Portobello Market!).
Towards the end of last month Gordon Brown announced that he would use legislation to stop supermarkets handing out single-use shopping bags for free, by amending the climate change bill currently going through parliament.
This is good news, as according to their website, M&S hands out a staggering 280 million plastic bags every year (it’s probably safe to assume many of those are not reused or recycled) and that’s just one large supermarket chain in the UK alone.
However, given the infamously high levels of packaging at Marks & Spencer, is this enough?
Recent research has taught us that consumers seem to be looking to trusted brands and retailers to help them make ethical purchasing decisions easier and to support their intentions to be more ‘green’.  M&S is a very well respected brand in the UK and shows real commitment and intent with their Plan A (because there is no Plan B) campaign.  So could they be doing more?  Almost force the hand of the consumer by simply not making plastic bags an option. 
I suspect 5p is not going to break the bank of many M&S shoppers...so will it be enough to change their shopping behaviour?