Interesting Facts

7.6 billion plastic carrier bags are handed out in England every year. (That's 61,000 tonnes of plastic, and the equivalent of 140 bags per person. The government expects the English scheme to cut use of plastic carrier bags by up to 80% in supermarkets, and by 50% on the High Street. It is expected to save £60m in litter clean-up costs as well as generate £730m for good causes over the next decade. Let's hope we can learn to carry a reusable bag with us.)

According to Professor Hugh Pennington, professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, 'bags-for-life' should never be used to carry raw meat or vegetables with soil on them. (He says bacteria can be transferred from the meat to the bag and then onto other products which are eaten raw - such as fruit - causing food poisoning, and raw meat should be carried in plastic bags which are then binned. In a study by University of Pennsylvania it was found that since San Francisco banned the use of plastic bags in 2007, hospitalisations and deaths from food-borne illnesses have nearly doubled. Penn Law professor, Jonathan Klick, found that eight per cent of reusable shopping bags contain E.coli and that 97 per cent of people admit to never washing their reusable bags. Even more scary is that they claim that washing the bags or cleaning them with antibacterial sprays is not sufficient.  This makes me feel a bit sad, because I hate plastic bags, I regularly wash my canvas b...

A study commissioned by DEFRA in 2000, showed that UK consumers used eight billion plastic carrier bags per year. However, it also showed that more than 80 per cent of people in the UK re-use their plastic carrier bags. (In the Republic of Ireland, by introducing a 15 cent plastax, they cut their use by more than 90% and raised millions of euros in revenue. In Bangladesh polythene bags are banned altogether. I have a bag for life, but I still get given carrier bags, unless I tell the shop assistant I don't want one.)