Switch to reusable shopping bags

Natalie Fee explains why…

If you’ve popped into the supermarket recently you’re probably already aware that plastic bags are no longer free. Love them or hate them we certainly get through them. Actually to the tune of a staggering 8.3 billion bags handed out by the UK’s supermarkets in 2013 alone – that’s 23 million every single day. Whilst some measures have been taken to make them degradable very few are ‘compostable’ – the term used to describe material which breaks down naturally without leaving any harmful waste residue.

So where do all these bags go? Well litter is the most obvious result, costing an estimated £60M a year to clean up. Less immediately visible is the marine pollution – 77% of seafloor debris around Europe is plastic and of this 93% is our discarded plastic bags. But they’re not just unsightly. Frequently eaten by sea birds and sea turtles, plastic waste is found inside 80% of dead birds examined.