Eight reasons to refuse disposable plastic bags
One - Where do they come from? 86% are made on the other side of the planet in Malaysia, China and Thailand. The energy used in manufacture and transporting disposable bags is responsible for unnecessary carbon emissions contributing to Climate Change.
Two - How much energy is used to make them? The amount of petroleum used to make our annual supply of plastic bags is enough to drive a car 54,000 times around the world or 10 round trips to the sun.
Three - How many do we use? 17.5 billion plastic bags are used in the UK each year, equivalent to over 290 bags for every person.
Four - How long do they last? Plastic bags are used for an average of 20 minutes each, but can take 1,000 years to break down.
Five - How many are recycled and thrown away? Only about 0.5% of plastic supermarket bags are re-cycled. The rest are thrown away. Plastics makes up around 7% of the average household dustbin. In total 100,000 tonnes of plastic bags are thrown away each year in the UK - that's the same weight as 70,000 cars.
