Tesco has announced two shortlists of environmental charities which could benefit from £1.8m of new plastic bag charges in Scotland and Wales.

Customers will be asked to choose one of the charities on each shortlist to receive the benefits of the levies.

The shortlist for Scotland includes Love Food Hate Waste, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Groundwork UK. On the Wales shortlist are Keep Wales Tidy and Groundwork UK. One organisation will be selected for each region.

Charities were asked to submit proposals in June, outlining how they could use the money to make a difference for the environment and their communities. Tesco received 120 submissions and cut it down to five.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for organisations to partner with us and make a real difference to the communities they serve,” said Greg Sage, community director for Tesco. “Our customers are the ones who will pay the charge, so we really wanted them to choose the partners that will benefit from the money.”

An estimated £1.8 million is expected to be raised from the carrier bag charges in Wales and Scotland during the partnership period of one year from October 2014 to September 2015.

The move comes in the run up to the introduction of the bag levy in Scotland in October 2014. The levy was first introduced in Wales in October 2011 and has since raised a total of £2.3 million for the local RSPB.

“Since 2011, the carrier bag levy in Wales … has been used for vital conservation work,” Sage said.

“We received a huge number of very strong applications from different organisations to be our new partners, and it was a tough job whittling the applications down to just five," he said. "It’s now down to our customers to decide who the winners will be.”

The partnerships are set to run for an initial period of 12 months. Voting closes on 22 August, 2014.