Plastic Bags Usage Statistics

This web page is a brief summary of plastic materials specific data.

Plastic bags usage statistics.

Seek out alternatives to the plastic items that you rely on. Avoid plastic bags and polystyrene foam as both typically have very low recycling rates. According to a report in 2004 roughly 80 percent of those bags were used in north america and western europe. England was the last country in the u k.

Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. Wales was the first to do so in 2011 followed by northern ireland in 2013 and scotland in 2014. Keiren last updated on june 6 2019 10 comments. Plastic resins are also used in a variety of container and packaging products such as pet beverage bottles hdpe bottles for milk and water and a wide variety of other resin types used in other plastic containers bags sacks wraps and lids.

Some 4 to 5 trillion plastic bags including large trash bags thick shopping bags and thin grocery bags were produced globally in 2002. In ireland they introduced a 15c plastic bag tax and reduced their usage by 90 in one year. To introduce a charge for single use plastic bags. Environmental damage from plastic bags.

Volunteer at a beach cleanup. The average american family takes home almost 1 500 plastic shopping bags a year. The floods in bangladesh in 1988 1998 were made more severe because plastic bags clogged drains. 10 facts about single use plastic bags.

Every year americans. According to waste management only 1 percent of plastic bags are returned. A slide deck summary of global plastics is available here. If you must use plastic try to choose 1 pete or 2 hdpe which are the most commonly recycled plastics.

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. About 500 billion single use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. The first synthetic plastic bakelite was produced in 1907 marking the beginning of the global plastics industry. It is now 22 cents.

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. This is our main data entry on plastics with a particular focus on its pollution of the environment. Roughly 80 percent of those bags were used in north america and western europe. It only takes about 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the gas required to drive one mile.

We have also produced an faqs on plastics page which attempts to answer additional common questions on the topic. Different countries have different usage levels but the entire world has to commit to reducing this usage.