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The UK Bag Manufacturers Association (UKBMA) has slammed government proposals to introduce charges on paper bags as well as plastic bags.

The government announced in the budget, on 12 March, that it would introduce legislation to impose a minimum charge on single-use carrier bags if retailers did not do enough voluntarily.

A levy would apply to both paper and plastic bags.

However, UKBMA chairman Nicholas Tomkins said he was concerned that paper bags were being "caught up" in the government's concerns about plastic bags.

Tomkins said that in Ireland, where paper bags were exempted from the levy on plastic bags that was introduced in 2002, paper bag use had not risen.

Nearly all paper bags used in the UK are also manufactured here, unlike plastic bags, which are imported from abroad, he added.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said substituting plastic bags with paper bags would result in higher environmental impacts.

"Paper bags come from a renewable resource, but they require more energy to produce, transport and recycle than plastic bags," she said.