Plastic Bags Usage Statistics

One of the noteworthy plastic bags waste statistics every aussie should know is that the world would have 253 million fewer bags to worry about each year if every household in the country would use one less each week.

Plastic bags usage statistics.

The average american family takes home almost 1 500 plastic shopping bags a year nrdc according to the worldwatch institute around 4 5 trillion plastic bags was created in 2002. According to waste management only 1 percent of plastic bags are returned. Roughly 80 percent of those bags were used in north america and western europe. Some 4 to 5 trillion plastic bags including large trash bags thick shopping bags and thin grocery bags were produced globally in 2002.

We have also produced an faqs on plastics page which attempts to answer additional common questions on the topic. Environmental damage from plastic bags. The floods in bangladesh in 1988 1998 were made more severe because plastic bags clogged drains. Avoid plastic bags and polystyrene foam as both typically have very low recycling rates.

It is now 22 cents. Every year one trillion plastic bags single use are used equating to 2 million per minute. Every year americans. It only takes about 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the gas required to drive one mile.

If you must use plastic try to choose 1 pete or 2 hdpe which are the most commonly recycled plastics. Different countries have different usage levels but the entire world has to commit to reducing this usage. About 500 billion single use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. According to a report in 2004 roughly 80 percent of those bags were used in north america and western europe.

Wales was the first to do so in 2011 followed by northern ireland in 2013 and scotland in 2014. A slide deck summary of global plastics is available here. In ireland they introduced a 15c plastic bag tax and reduced their usage by 90 in one year. Keiren last updated on june 6 2019 10 comments.

To introduce a charge for single use plastic bags. Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. Volunteer at a beach cleanup. Seek out alternatives to the plastic items that you rely on.

The government has now banned plastic bags. The first synthetic plastic bakelite was produced in 1907 marking the beginning of the global plastics industry. The 1 man made thing that sailors see in our ocean are plastic bags. 10 facts about single use plastic bags.

England was the last country in the u k. The average american family takes home almost 1 500 plastic shopping bags a year.