LONDON, England -- British retailers have been given a year to cut down on the number of plastic bags they hand out to customers or face legislation that will force them to impose a charge on every bag they give away.

Chancellor Alistair Darling, in a speech detailing his annual budget, said laws could come into force in 2009, The Age reports.

Based on other countries’ experiences, they could cut the use of plastic bags by 90%, reducing the number that end up in landfills by up to 12 billion a year. The charge would apply to all bags, including thin plastic bags used by fruit and vegetable sellers, and the large carriers of fashion shops.

“Given the damage that single-use carrier bags inflict on the environment, we want to be able to take action,” Darling said. “We will introduce legislation to impose a charge on them if we have not seen sufficient progress on a voluntary basis.”‘The money raised would go to environmental charities, he said.

Pressure on British retailers has mounted following a newspaper campaign to “banish the bags” that was taken up by high street giant Marks & Spencer. It announced that it would charge five pence for food carriers in all its British stores from May.

The retailer tested bag charges in Northern Ireland and the south-west of England last year and the number of bags handed out tumbled by 70%. M&S donates the cash raised from the charge to a charity that creates green spaces in urban areas.

The British Retail Consortium criticized the Chancellor’s plan.

“It’s outrageous to suggest carrier bags are a major cause of climate change,” the group’s director-general, Stephen Robertson, said. “There are many more significant contributors.” He said setting a date for legislation showed the government had jumped to a verdict already and he accused Darling of a knee-jerk reaction to a highly emotional campaign.