Facts About Plastic Bags that Will Change How You Use Them

I'm sure you've heard that plastic bags are bad for the environment. It’s well researched and well documented – and yet 160,000 plastic bags are still used every second around the world. 

​This needs to change. 

 
A trillion plastic bags are used around the world each year. The average Australian uses 170 plastic bags every year. 150 million of these end up as litter, only 3% of them are currently being recycle and 200,000 bags are dumped in landfill every hour. If those facts and stats aren't enough to motivate you to make the switch to reusable (non-plastic) bags, then here are a few more shocking truths:

• Worldwide, about 2 million plastic bags are used every minute.
• A plastic bag is used for an average of 12 minutes. After its 12 minutes of use, it’s generally discarded and will remain in the environment for 1,000 years before they decompose!
• If we joined all the plastic bags in the world together, they would circumnavigate the globe 4,200 times. That’s right, 4,200 times!
• If just one person used recycled plastic bags over their lifetime, they would be removing 22,000 plastic bags from the environment. That one person could be you.
• Plastic bags are made from petroleum. 8.7 plastic bags have enough petroleum energy to drive a car for 1 kilometre.
  
• Most plastic bags are non-biodegradable. As plastic bags degrade, they will break down into smaller and smaller pieces until they form micro plastics, and they will never actually completely disappear from the environment. The problem is that these micro plastics can enter the food chain, ending up inside animals and even humans.
  
• There might be animal fat on your plastic bag. I haven't done enough research into this yet, but most plastic bags contain slip agents to reduce the friction in the material, and this is likely made from animal fat... Argh. 

Scary huh. 

What you can do?

We need to see a cultural shift away from single-use plastics. Everyone of us can make a difference. 

• Politely say no (and smile!) when offered a plastic bag, or beat them to it and whip out your reusable bag
• If you've forgotten your reusable shopping bag, maybe you can carry the items in your hands? Or go back to the shops more prepared another time
• Invest in a hardy canvas bag, or fold-up bag to keep handy in your handbag, car, work and home to grab when you go to the shops
• Encourage others to use reusable bags

• Give reusable shopping bags or cute tote bags as a gift

Changes can take a while to get used to. Stick with it and make the commitment. Our Earth will thank you.

- Steph XO

Photo credit: Canadian Wildlife Federation http://blog.cwf-fcf.org/index.php/en/single-use-plastic-earth-day/plastic-bag-pollution-in-ocean/