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Consumption Facts
• An estimated 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide each year; that is more than 1 million a minute.
• In the UK an estimated 17.5 billion plastic bags are given away by supermarkets each year.
• Each adult receives on average 290 plastic bags a year.
• The average lifespan of a plastic bag is only 12 minutes.
• 88% of people use ‘free’ plastic bags given to them in supermarkets, and on average they take 3 or 4 shopping bags per trip.
• 71% of shoppers claim to have bought a reusable bag but only 12% use them regularly.
• Most families throw away about 40 kg of plastic a year.
• Since 1950, we have consumed as much as all the generations before us combined.

Environmental facts
• Only one in every 200 bags is recycled.
• Plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to break down in a landfill.
• Plastic bags do not bio-degrade, they photo-degrade, i.e. they break into smaller and smaller pieces releasing toxic substances into the soil.
• Plastic bags are carried by the wind into forests, ponds, rivers, lakes and seas.
• Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic bags.
• Marine mammals die from eating plastic bags and they suffer a painful death; either the plastic bags wrap around their intestines or they choke to death.
• Nearly 57% of litter found on beaches in 2003 was plastic.

Manufacturing facts
• 4 – 5 trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year.
• Plastic bags are made from Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), a petroleum product.
• Plastics production requires significant quantities of non-renewable fossil fuels, both as a raw material and for energy in the manufacturing process.
• 8% of the world’s annual oil is used in the production of plastic.
• Plastics production contributes to air pollution and energy consumption.
• Plastics production involves the use of potentially harmful chemicals which are added as stabilizers or colorants; many of which have not undergone environmental risk assessment.