The usage of single-use plastic bags has decreased by 20% in England since a 10p fee was implemented last year, according to the government.
The 2015 5p charge was replaced with a higher price.
According to official statistics, the average person now purchases three single-use carrier bags annually, down from 140 in 2014.
However, according to environmentalists, this is just the top of the plastic problem.
Plastic particles can be found everywhere, from human blood to the Arctic, making plastic pollution a major global problem.
To deter irrational use, fees for single-use plastic bags were implemented. According to data from Defra, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, usage has dropped by 97 percent in England since 2015.
Nowadays, the majority of supermarkets exclusively sell “bags for life,” which are excluded from the statistics.
According to environmental nonprofit Greenpeace, these are being used more frequently. It told the media that the numbers don’t accurately represent the scope of the issue.
According to Megan Corton Scott, a political campaigner for Greenpeace UK, “When the government congratulates itself on the single-use plastic bag fee, what they neglect to mention is the tremendous surge in the purchase of so-called “bags for life.”
According to Greenpeace study, homes used over 57 bags for life in 2019. According to her, stores have distributed more than 1.5 billion bags for life as a result.
The switch to bags for life caused retailers to use more plastic, she continues, “and because these bags for life are thicker and more robust, they have a considerably bigger environmental impact both in production and how they break down.”
According to a study by the Environment Agency, plastic bags for life required to be used at least four times before they were as environmentally friendly as the single-use, lighter bags.
Given that more consumers now treat bags for life as disposable, activists have urged businesses to raise the cost of these bags. According to the Green Alliance, each should cost 70p.
In April 2021, the Co-op store switched from thin polythene bags to compostable carrying bags and urged other merchants to follow suit.
Nearly 5,000 stores in the UK, largely big supermarkets, offer recycling services for flexible plastics like the kind used in bags for life.
Packaging is the main cause of plastic waste on a global scale. Each year, more than 2.2 million tonnes of plastic packaging reach the UK’s consumer market. The food industry uses a lot of this. According to a Greenpeace analysis published last month, food and beverage packaging accounted for 83 percent of all plastic trash.
In April 2022, a new tax on plastic packaging was enacted in the UK.
In addition to restricting the use of plastic straws and cotton buds and outlawing single-use plastic cutlery and plates, the government has already outlawed the use of plastic microbeads in personal care goods.
