Where exactly does your plastic bag levy go?

"Are you taking a bag?"

It's a question shoppers hear at tills all over the country every day, but the levy attached to taking a bag is under scrutiny. Where does it go?

South Africa’s plastic bag levy was first introduced in 2004 as an anti-pollution mechanism and to support environmental initiatives such as recycling programmes.

SARS collects the levy from plastic bag manufacturers.

While the National Treasury states that there is no 'earmarking' of funds collected from a specific tax for a specific purpose, concerns persist that these funds are not being used for environmental solutions as intended.

"The original signed agreement was that the levy would come back to the industry and the industry would use that to take care of the plastic bag pollution problem," says Anton Hanekom, Executive Director of Plastics SA.

For a time, that happened, but then that system collapsed, says Hanekom.

"Since then, the money is part of the national fiscus where it is used for national priorities."

A portion of the money is flowing back to the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) to monitor manufacturers.

And the rest of the money? On that one, Hanekom and his industry colleagues draw a blank.

"We're not sure where that's going," he says.

"Immediately after the levy was introduced, we probably dropped to about 10% of what has been produced, so probably a 90% drop."

Currently, that number sits at about 50%, explains Hanekom.

"So yes, there has been an impact in terms of fewer plastic bags being used."

Industry bodies and environmental groups argue that the government ought to ringfence the levy so that it can be used directly for anti-pollution and environmental efforts.

To listen to Hanekom in conversation with 702's John Perlman, use the audio player below: